A comparison of 1st and 2nd order sigma delta DAC for implementation in an FPGA.
This small project implements two 16-bit DACs, one being a first order, the second being a second order. The Verilog and VHDL are functionally identical implmentations.
A new sample is provided from a 50-entry lookup table every 1000 clock cycles, so with a 100MHz clock it generates a 2.000kHz signal.
External to the FPGA will need to be a passive low pass filter.
Spectrum of the 1st order DAC:
Spectrum of the 2nd order DAC:
Code for the DAC modules is in VHDL and Verilog
The lower two switches control which DAC is active, the next two control the rate they clock at (full, 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8th of the clock rate).
With tweaking of the code you can achieve lower 2nd harmonics - ask me how!