Analysis of Influence of DAC on Total Harmonic Distortion in Digital Waveform Synthesis

Harmonic distortion exists in sinusoidal waves generated by digital waveform synthesis techniques. The total harmonic distortion (THD) is not only related to the number M of discrete points in one period but also the bits N of Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC). Through testing a 16-bit "LTC1597 DAC" on a D/A testing system designed by ourselves, we analyze in this paper the influences of the DAC resolution and the establishing time on THD of sinusoidal waves generated by digital waveform synthesis techniques.