Academic Company Events NI Developer Zone Support Solutions Products & Services Contact NI MyNI
United States

Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) / Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs)

"PXI enabled us to improve the quality of our ADC characterization considerably and reduce test costs by saving valuable test development time"

- Manfred Pauritsch - University of Applied Sciences

Read the full case study

National Instruments supplies a variety of products for designing ADC and DAC test solutions for validation, characterization, and production environments. Learn how you can use PXI and modular instrumentation combined with flexible software such as NI LabVIEW to reduce test costs and improve measurement repeatability. Use the resources (customer case studies, technical tutorials, and example code) on this site to learn how PXI and LabVIEW can help you test your ADC or DAC.

National Instruments hardware and software products have the following measurement capabilities:

  • Dynamic performance (SINAD, THD, SNR, SFDR, EOB, PHSN, IMD, ISO)

  • Linearity testing (INL/DNL)

  • Current consumption (IIH, IIL, IDDQ, standby)

  • Voltage thresholds (VOH, VOL, VIH, VIL)

  • Gain and offsets


National Instruments modular hardware and graphical software tools can help decrease the cost and increase the flexibility of analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) test systems.

Learn how to use National Instruments tools to build a customized ADC/DAC test system that meets your needs. The following technical tutorials explain key strategies for architecting your test system, combined with proven example code written by National Instruments system engineers. These resources are designed to help you get started testing DC parametric, linearity, and other analog characteristics of your ADC or DAC.

ADCs/DACs Resource Kit
Download PDFs of the reference designs as well as code to implement tests that are commonly performed on ADCs and DACs.

Download the ADCs/DACs resource kit

Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) Test System for PXI

Test and characterize the performance of ADCs with up to 200 MS/s and 14-bit performance with the following PXI system.

  • Source/measure capability from +/- 100V, down to 10 pA of resolution
  • Analog generation at 16-bit resolution, 200 MS/s sampling rate
  • Up to 200 MHz digital I/O for control lines and ADC pattern capture

View the test system

Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) Test System for PXI

Test and characterize the performance of DACs with up to 200 MS/s and 16-bit performance with the following PXI system.

  • Source/measure capability from +/- 100V, down to 10 pA of resolution
  • Analog capture at 24-bit resolution up to 500 kS/s, ranging to 16 bits at 15 MS/s
  • Up to 200 MHz digital I/O for control lines and DAC pattern generation

View the test system

Learn More about National Instruments Alliance Partners

Learn about Alliance Partners and integrators that National Instruments works with directly to provide services and support for ADC/DAC testing.

Search the Alliance Partner Directory

Industry Trends

  • Rising test costs and increasing device complexity
  • Integration into system on a chip (SOC) and system in-line package (SIP) designs
  • Reduction in packaged footprint
  • Increasing demand for digital content

Benefits of Using NI

  • Mixed-signal platform with tight synchronization of analog and digital instrumentation
  • Modular platform to accommodate advancements in designs
  • Advanced signal processing and analysis routines for common measurements


Contact Us