Analog Circuit Design

21

The care and feeding of high performance ADCs: get all the bits you paid for

William C. Rempfer

Introduction

A new generation of ADCs currently appearing on the scene brings higher performance and lower cost to new markets. Figure 21.1 shows an example of how high speed 12-bit converters are becoming affordable for the first time to a new range of applications. At the same time, the new converters achieve better dynamic performance with high frequency input signals. This means that more system designers are facing the challenge of using high performance ADCs. In this chapter, we will talk about some of the problems designers encounter, how to recognize their symptoms and how to avoid them. We will focus on the particular case of the LTC1410, a ...