A signal quality-based study of two compensation methods for nonlinear flash ADCs

Date of Award

2011

Degree Name

M.S. in Electrical Engineering

Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Advisor/Chair

Advisor: Eric Balster

Abstract

The analog-to-digital conversion of signals is a necessity in a world with an increasing dependance on digital systems. During the process of digitizing signals, signal spectra are nonlinearly distorted due to the nonideal conversion device. Many kinds of nonlinear distortion can occur: inconsistent quantization intervals, clocking inconsistencies, and biasing errors are among the most prevalent. Of these sources, inconsistent quantization intervals is the most degrading to signal fidelity. Significant reduction in spurious free dynamic range, total harmonic distortion, and effective number of bits can be caused by small amounts of quantization error. Thus, methods for compensating the effects of nonlinear quantization have been a topic of considerable research in data conversion circles. Two promising methods in particular, dynamic element matching (DEM) and bit extended error tables (BEET), are simulated and compared to various converter families. It is shown that BEET compensation provides larger improvements for a larger number of converters than if DEM is used.

Keywords

Analog-to-digital converters Testing, Signal processing Digital techniques Data processing

Rights Statement

Copyright © 2011, author

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