Microchip | MCP4728-E/UN

Analog to digital converters take real world signals and convert them into 0’s and 1’s, so that they may be manipulated by digital equipment.

Whether you are listening to a CD or scanning a picture to your computer, the ADC is converting the analog signal (Sound and light) to a digital source. The opposite is also true. If you take a digital signal and need to convert it back to an Analog source you need a DAC.

The ADC/DCA converter takes samples from the analog signal from time to time. Each sample is converted into a number, based on its voltage level.

The more sampling points that are used, the higher the sampling rate. The value of each sampled point is stored on a fixed-length variable. So, if you are using an 8-bit analog-to-digital converter, the lowest value will be zero and the highest value will be 255. If a 16-bit analog-to-digital converter is used, the lowest value will be zero and the highest value will be 65,535.