Analog and telecommunication

electronics

D6 - High speed A/D converters

» Spectral performance analysis
» Under/Over-sampling techniques
» Sampling jitter
» Interleaving ADC
» Dithering

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 D6 - High speed A/D converters
Spectral performance analysis
Undersampling techniques
Sampling jitter
Interleaving ADC
Dithering

References:
♦ Application Report SLAA510 – January 2011
♦ ADC Input Noise: Is No Noise Good Noise?
Analog Dialogue, - Febr 2006

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 SNRt and ENOB
Each unit in the ADC chain introduces errors and noise
♦ Aliasing, quantization, sampl. jitter + errors (amplifier, mux, …)
Actual accuracy depends from all these elements
♦ Key parameter: total Signal/Noise ratio: SNRt
♦ Not just the bit number N of the A/D
ENOB = (SNRT - 1,76)/6 = SNRT/6 - 0,3
♦ Represents the number of actually useful bits of the ADC (sys)
♦ SNRT includes SNRA, SNRQ , SNRJ , …

ENOB is always lower than N

♦ ENOB = N-1, N-2 ..  good system design
♦ ENOB < N-3 ..  bad system design
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 AD systems glossary (similar to ampl.)
SNR: Signal-to-Noise Ratio.
♦ Ps/Pn, excluding DC and first five harmonics (sometime first 9).
SFDR: Spurious Free Dynamic Range.
♦ Ps/Ph (Ph is the highest spur).
THD: Total Harmonic Distortion.
♦ Ps/Pd (Pd is the power of the first five (or 9) harmonics)
SINAD: SIgnal to Noise And Distortion (SNRT for ADC).
♦ Ps/(Pn+Pd) (no DC)
Can be specified in
♦ dBc (dB to carrier, reference is the fundamental), or
♦ dBfs (dB to full scale, fundamental extrapolated to full-scale).
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 Aliasing: Spectrum folding

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 Folding of harmonics

Largest
Fundamental spurious
(Ph)
SFDR
Folded
harmonics

spurious
Harm 2 Harm 3 Harm 6

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 Spectral view of ADC parameters

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 Spectral view of SFDR
3
Fundamental

3 4 5 6 Fs
H2
Fs/2

Largest
SFDR Fundamental spurious Folded
harmonics

Spurious Harm 2 Harm 3 Harm 6

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 Oversampling
Sampling at a rate far higher than the Nyquist limit
♦ Example: 3 kHz audio signal (Nyquist = 6 kS/s)
8 kS/s  Nyquist sampling; 1 MS/s  Oversampling
Oversampling sends aliased spectra far from baseband
♦ Reduced aliasing noise, folded from first alias
♦ Relaxed specifications on the anti-alias input filter
Quantization noise is spread over a wider band (0 - Fs)
♦ Reduced spectral density of quantization noise
Higher bit rate (more samples/s)
♦ Can be reduced with digital filtering
Move complexity from analog  digital domain
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 Oversampling vs. Nyquist
Main spectrum
Nyquist (baseband) First alias Second alias

X(ω)
f

0 FS1 2FS1
Quantization noise (0-Fs1 band)

Oversampling

X(ω) First alias

0 FS2
Quantization noise (0-Fs2 band)

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 Oversampling vs. Nyquist filtering

Nyquist Steep filter

X(ω)
f

0 FS1 2FS1
Different filters:
same quantization noise power
(after reconstruction filter)
Oversampling

X(ω) Smooth filter

f
0 FS2

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 Oversampling vs. Nyquist noise
Nyquist Steep filter
X(ω)
f

0 FS1 2FS1
Same filter:
reduced quantization noise power
(after reconstruction filter)
Oversampling
Steep filter
Removed quantization noise
X(ω)
f
0 FS2

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 Which is the actual limit ?
Actual Nyquist rule:
♦ A signal must be sampled at least twice the signal BANDWIDTH
♦ Example:
a 1 GHz carrier, 100 kHz BW signal
can be safely sampled at Fs > 200 ks/s
♦ Spectrum is folded around K Fs/2

Less stringent specs for RF A/D converters

♦ Sampling rate related with bandwidth, not carrier

Tight specs for the S/H

♦ sampling jitter related with carrier, not bandwidth

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 Filter for Nyquist sampling
NYQUIST
Steep antialias filter,
to limit aliasing noise Spectrum segment
folded to baseband
X(ω) (aliasing noise)
f

0 FS 2FS
FS/2

A/D

Complex analog LP filter

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 Oversampling: more simple filter

Complex, steep digital filter: Alias is far away;

- reduce noise antialias analog
- reduce bit rate (decimation) filter can be simple

X(ω)

0 FS2

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 Filters with oversampling
NYQUIST  Complex analog LP filter

A/D

OVERSAMPLING  Simple analog filter

A/D

Complex digital filter

Move complexity from the Can reduce the bit rate
analog to the digital domain (decimation)

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 Oversampling: noise shaping
Oversampling
Reconstruction Flat quantization noise
X(ω) filter

f
0 FS2
Noise shaping
Shaped quantization noise
X(ω)
f
0 FS2
In ΣΔ ADC noise power is moved to HF,
with lower power density in baseband

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 “Standard” sampling
Sample at (at least) 2 x signal frequency
♦Keeps aliases out of useful band
♦Standard technique: signal rebuilt with low-pass
filter

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 Undersampling
Sample at 2 x signal bandwidth
(can be far less than signal frequency)
♦ Aliases arise, but out of useful band
♦ Signal can be rebuilt with bandpass filter; no information loss

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 Undersampling - correct

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 Undersampling – not correct

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 ADC example

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 Block diagram

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 Basic structure
Pipeline subranging, with multibit (3, 3, 4) stages

S/H A/D - 5bit

MSB, …..
A (D11 .., D7)
+ D/A - 5bit
(analog
input)
32 D11 …
Digital D0

S/H processing
A/D - 5bit (error
correction)
+ D/A - 5bit

32

S/H A/D - 5bit

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 Electrical characteristic

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 Output signal spectrum
Sampling rate
500 Ms/s (MSPS)

SFDR

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 Undersampling aliasing

Sampling: 500 Ms/s < Nyquist

In-band Alias (500-300)

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 Intermodulation
Input signal:
Fin1: 65,1 MHz
Fin2: 70,1 MHz
♦Sideband at
65,1 – 5
70,1 + 5
♦Higher sideband
at 65,1 – 10
70,1 + 10

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 Differential and integral nonlinearity

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 Spurious Free Dynamic Range

dbFullScale:
error referred to full scale
(SNR independent from
signal level)

dbCarrier:
error referred to carrier
(SNR depends on signal
level)

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 Clock jitter
High speed ADC need “precise” sampling
♦low clock jitter  differential clock
♦Effect of clock jitter: SNRj = -20 log10 2π Fin Tj

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 Aperture jitter specification

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 Interleaving ADCs

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 Spectrum folding with interleaved ADC
Harmonics
folded into
baseband

Double
sampling
rate:
harmonics
stays at
higher
frequencies

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 Averaging ADCs

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 Averaging ADC benefits

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 Dithering

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 Adding sampling jitter (dither)
Signal

Peaks from periodic edges removed

Signal +
dither noise

… but backgound noise increases

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 Dither effect

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