| DAC | digital to analog converter | -- |
|---|
| DAD | not an acronym | The guy who used to fill your gas tank while you were in college studying to be a microwave big shot. Don't wait until father's day to call him. |
|---|
| DAMPS | digital advanced mobile phone system | -- |
|---|
| DANL | Displayed Average Noise Level | From Electronic Design (Erik Diez, Agilent Technologies, Mar 22, 2012): "DANL is another term for a spectrum analyzer’s noise floor given a particular bandwidth and represents its best-case sensitivity. It is impossible to measure input signals below this |
|---|
| DB | decibel | Refers to relative RF power levels on a logarithmic scale. Used to express any ratio logarithmically. "I love you 1 dB more than yesterday" means a 20 percent increase. |
|---|
| DBC | dB below carrier | Measurement of how much less power a signal at one frequency has with respect to the signal at the carrier frequency. |
|---|
| DBM | decibel relative to one milliwatt | Log scale that refers to absolute RF power levels. For example, 0 dBm refers to 1 mW, 30 dBm refers to 1 Watt. |
|---|
| DBM | double balanced mixer | One of many cases of acronym reuse! |
|---|
| DBP | dB Petre | Measurement of how much power a signal has at one frequency with respect to the legendary Edward Petre. Power levels may be lower when Ed does not carry his cellphone when making phase noise measurements. |
|---|
| DBS | direct broadcast satellite | The thing out in space that transmits all of those cartoons to your kids. The link between the satellite and your house is done with microwave signals. |
|---|
| DC | direct current | What Edison incorrectly thought you'd use in your home. |
|---|
| DCS | digital communication system | Analog cell phone standard. |
|---|
| DCXO | digitally-compensated crystal oscillator | -- |
|---|
| DDC | digital down converter | Thanks to Josh! |
|---|
| DECT | digital enhanced cordless telephone | Digital cordless phone standard. |
|---|
| DF | dissipation factor | The reciprocal of quality factor (Q) for a capacitor. |
|---|
| DFW | dielectrically-filled waveguide | See substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) |
|---|
| DHBT | double-heterojunction bipolar transistor | -- |
|---|
| DLVA | detector log video amplifier | -- |
|---|
| DOE | design of experiments | A more impressive way of saying, "I tried a lot of sh*t, and this seems to work the best, now pass the donuts" |
|---|
| DPDT | double-pole, double throw | A pair of SPDT switches that are ganged together (thanks, Micah!) |
|---|
| DPLL | digital phase-locked loop | -- |
|---|
| DPQSK | differential quadrature phase shift keying | -- |
|---|
| DRC | design rule checking | Software that verifies that you didn't do something really stupid in your layout. |
|---|
| DRO | dielectric resonator oscillator | -- |
|---|
| DSA | digital step attenuator | -- |
|---|
| DSB | double sideband | A receiver or downconverter that uses both sidebands. |
|---|
| DSBSC | double sideband carrier suppression | -- |
|---|
| DSP | digital signal processor | What the nerds do with your IF output signal. |
|---|
| DSR | double-selective recess | A highly-repeatable way to make pHEMT gates. |
|---|
| DSS | digital satellite system | -- |
|---|
| DTUPC | design to unit production cost | Here is an article on DTUPC that dates to 1973, written by the US Army. |
|---|
| DUT | device under test | That thing you just blew up out in the lab. |
|---|