Electronic – Increasing the opamp gain is decreasing the DAC resolution

dacgainoperational-amplifier

I want to control for example LM317 ADJ pin with a 12 bit DAC to get 1mV precision, it's an 0-5V DAC. In below schematic I increased the gain of opamp to two so I can achieve a higher voltage, but now the problem is every step is doubled as well; (5 / 4096) * 2 = 0.0024.

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

How can I increase the opamp gain without actually losing the DAC resolution?

Best Answer

Your resolution is $$ \huge V_\text{Resolution}=\frac{V_{DAC_\text{output range}}}{2^{DAC_\text{bit_number}}}\times GAIN $$ it is the smallest increment you can achieve for the ADJ voltage.

To get a better resolution, you can:

  1. diminishing the OP AMP gain, but won't be able to have a 0-5V range for the ADJ voltage
  2. diminishing the DAC output_range (by diminishing the DAC voltage reference), but then you also won't be able to have a 0-5V range for the ADJ voltage
  3. get a DAC with a higher bit number

Given your constraints (getting a 0-10V range for the ADJ voltage with a 1mV resolution) you need at least a 14-bit DAC.