The 12-bit DAC63004 and 10-bit DAC53004 (DACx3004) are a pin-compatible family of ultra-low-power, quad-channel, buffered voltage-output and current-output, smart digital-to-analog converters (DACs). The DAC channels are independently configurable as voltage output or current output. The DAC outputs change to Hi-Z when VDD is off; a feature useful in voltage-margining applications. These smart DACs contain nonvolatile memory (NVM), an internal reference, automatically detectable I²C and SPI interface, PMBus-compatibility in I²C mode, a force-sense output, and a general-purpose input/output. These devices support Hi-Z power-down modes by default, which can also be configured to 10 kΩ-GND or 100 kΩ-GND using the NVM. The DACx3004 have a power-on-reset (POR) circuit that makes sure all the registers start with default or user-programmed settings using NVM. The DACx3004 operate with either an internal reference, external reference, or with a power supply as the reference, and provide a full-scale output between 1.8 V and 5.5 V.

The DACx3004 devices support I²C standard mode (100 kbps), fast mode (400 kbps), and fast mode plus (1 Mbps). The I²C interface can be configured with four target addresses using the A0 pin. These devices also support specific PMBus commands such as turn on/off, margin high or low, and more. SPI mode supports a three-wire interface by default, with up to a 50-MHz SCLK input. The GPIO input can be configured as SDO in the NVM for SPI read capability. The GPIO input can also be configured as FAULT-DUMP, LDAC, PD, PROTECT, RESET, and STATUS functions. These devices support deep-sleep mode in addition to sleep (power-down) mode. Deep-sleep mode uses the GPIO pin for power-down and wake up, in which the device draws a very-low power-down current of 3 μA. Together with ultra-low-power operation, the DACx3004 are designed for battery-operated applications, such as land mobile radios, medical pulse oximeters, and laptops.

The DACx3004 also include digital slew rate control, and support standard waveform generation such as sine and cosine, triangular, and sawtooth. These devices can generate pulse-width modulation (PWM) output with the combination of the triangular or sawtooth waveform and the FB pin. The force-sense outputs of the DAC channels can be used as programmable comparators. Comparator mode allows programmable hysteresis, latching comparator, and window comparator. These features enable the DACx3004 to go beyond the limitations of a conventional DAC that depends on a processor to function. As a result of processor-less operation and the smart feature set, the DACx3004 are called smart DACs.