Differential nonlinearity

Differential nonlinearity (acronym DNL) is a commonly used measure of performance in digital-to-analog (DAC) and analog-to-digital (ADC) converters.

Ideally, any two adjacent digital codes correspond to output analog voltages that are exactly one Least Significant Bit (LSB) apart.

Differential non-linearity may be expressed in fractional bits or as a percentage of full scale.

A differential non-linearity greater than 1 LSB may lead to a non-monotonic transfer function in a DAC.

Differential linearity is desirable and is inherent to a system such as a single-slope analog-to-digital converter used in nuclear instrumentation.

Demonstrates A. Differential Linearity where a change in the input produces a corresponding change in output and B. Differential Non-linearity, where the relationship is not directly linear