Any practical electronic application is subject to multiple sources of error that can make the most precise components deviate from their data sheet behavior. When the application signal chain doesn’t have a built-in mechanism to self-adjust for these errors, the only approach to minimize their impact is to measure them and calibrate them out systematically.
In this article, we’ll introduce two types of DAC signal chain calibration: the TempCal (calibration at operating temperature), which can give the best level of error correction, and the SpecCal (calibration using specifications), which is a valid alternative when using TempCal is not possible, but it’s not as comprehensive.