Analog to Digital

Converters

Byron Johns
Danny Carpenter
Stephanie Pohl
Harry “Bo” Marr

1
Presentation Outline
 Introduction: Analog vs. Digital?
 Examples of ADC Applications
 Types of A/D Converters
 Examples of Analog to Digital Signal
Conversion

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Analog Signals
Analog signals – directly measurable quantities
in terms of some other quantity
Examples:
 Thermometer – mercury height rises as
temperature rises
 Car Speedometer – Needle moves farther
right as you accelerate
 Stereo – Volume increases as you turn the
knob.
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Digital Signals
Digital Signals – have only two states. For
digital computers, we refer to binary states, 0
and 1. “1” can be on, “0” can be off.
Examples:
 Light switch can be either on or off

 Door to a room is either open or closed

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Examples of A/D Applications
 Microphones - take your voice varying pressure waves in the
air and convert them into varying electrical signals
 Strain Gages - determines the amount of strain (change in
dimensions) when a stress is applied
 Thermocouple – temperature measuring device converts
thermal energy to electric energy
 Voltmeters
 Digital Multimeters

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Just what does an
A/D converter DO?

 Converts analog signals into binary words

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 ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERSION

A digital signal is superior to an analog signal

because it is more robust to noise and can
easily be recovered, corrected and amplified.
For this reason, the tendency today is to
change an analog signal to digital data. In this
section we describe one techniques, pulse
code modulation.

4.7
Components of PCM encoder

PCM – Pulse Code Modulation Analog signal is sampled

every Ts seconds
1st: analog signal is sampled
2nd: sampled signal is quantized Sample rate is fs = 1/Ts

3rd: quantized values are encoded as

bit streams (or codes)
Analog  Digital Conversion
Step Process:

 Quantizing - breaking down analog value is a

set of finite states
 Encoding - assigning a digital word or
number to each state and matching it to the
input signal

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Quantizing
Output Discrete Voltage
Example: States Ranges (V)
You have 0-10V 0 0.00-1.25
signals. Separate them 1 1.25-2.50
into a set of discrete
2 2.50-3.75
states with 1.25V
increments. (How did 3 3.75-5.00
we get 1.25V? See 4 5.00-6.25
next slide…) 5 6.25-7.50
6 7.50-8.75
7 8.75-10.0
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Quantizing
The number of possible states that the
converter can output is:
N=2n
where n is the number of bits in the AD converter

Example: For a 3 bit A/D converter, N=23=8.

Analog quantization size:

Q=(Vmax-Vmin)/N = (10V – 0V)/8 = 1.25V

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Encoding
Output Output Binary Equivalent
 Here we assign the States
digital value (binary 0 000
number) to each
1 001
state for the
computer to read. 2 010
3 011
4 100
5 101
6 110
7 111
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Accuracy of A/D Conversion
There are two ways to best improve accuracy of
A/D conversion:

 increasing the resolution which improves the

accuracy in measuring the amplitude of the
analog signal.

 increasing the sampling rate which increases the

maximum frequency that can be measured.

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Resolution

 Resolution (number of discrete values the converter can

produce) = Analog Quantization size (Q)
(Q) = Vrange / 2^n, where Vrange is the range of analog
voltages which can be represented

 In our previous example: Q = 1.25V, this is a high

resolution. A lower resolution would be if we used a 2-bit
converter, then the resolution would be 10/2^2 = 2.50V.

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Sampling Rate

Frequency at which ADC evaluates analog signal. As we

see in the second picture, evaluating the signal more often
more accurately depicts the ADC signal.
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Aliasing
 Occurs when the input signal is changing much
faster than the sample rate.

For example, a 2 kHz sine wave being sampled

at 1.5 kHz would be reconstructed as a 500 Hz
(the aliased signal) sine wave.

Nyquist Rule:
 Use a sampling frequency at least twice as high
as the maximum frequency in the signal to avoid
aliasing. 16
Overall Better Accuracy
 Increasing both the sampling rate and the resolution
you can obtain better accuracy in your AD signals.

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 Figure 4.23 Nyquist sampling rate for low-pass and bandpass signals

4.18
 Example

Telephone companies digitize voice by assuming

a maximum frequency of 4000 Hz. The sampling
8000
rate therefore is ……….samples per second.

4.19
 Example 4.10

A complex low-pass signal has a bandwidth of

200 kHz. What is the minimum sampling rate for
this signal?

Solution
The bandwidth of a low-pass signal is between 0 and f,
where f is the maximum frequency in the signal.
Therefore, we can sample this signal at 2 times the
highest frequency (200 kHz). The sampling rate is
therefore 400,000 samples per second.

4.20
 Example 4.11

A complex bandpass signal has a bandwidth of

200 kHz. What is the minimum sampling rate for
this signal?

Solution
We cannot find the minimum sampling rate in this case
because we do not know where the bandwidth starts or
ends. We do not know the maximum frequency in the
signal.

4.21
A/D Converter Types By Danny
Carpenter

 Converters

 Flash ADC
 Delta-Sigma ADC
 Dual Slope (integrating) ADC
 Successive Approximation ADC

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Flash ADC
 Consists of a series of comparators, each
one comparing the input signal to a unique
reference voltage.

 The comparator outputs connect to the inputs

of a priority encoder circuit, which produces a
binary output

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Flash ADC Circuit

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 Flash
Advantages
 Simplest in terms of
operational theory
 Most efficient in terms
of speed, very fast
 limited only in terms of
comparator and gate
propagation delays
Disadvantages
 Lower resolution
 Expensive
 For each additional
output bit, the number
of comparators is
doubled
 i.e. for 8 bits, 256
comparators needed
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Sigma Delta ADC
 Over sampled input
signal goes to the
integrator
 Output of integration is
compared to GND
 Iterates to produce a
serial bit stream
 Output is serial bit
stream with # of 1’s
proportional to Vin
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Outputs of Delta Sigma

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 Sigma-Delta

Advantages Disadvantages

 High resolution  Slow due to

oversampling
 No precision external
components needed

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Successive Approximation ADC By
Stephanie Pohl

 A Successive Approximation Register (SAR)

is added to the circuit
 Instead of counting up in binary sequence,
this register counts by trying all values of bits
starting with the MSB and finishing at the
LSB.
 The register monitors the comparators output
to see if the binary count is greater or less
than the analog signal input and adjusts the
bits accordingly
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Successive Approximation
ADC Circuit

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Output

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 Successive Approximation
Advantages Disadvantages

 Capable of high speed and  Higher resolution

reliable
 Medium accuracy compared
to other ADC types
 Good tradeoff between
speed and cost
successive approximation
ADC’s will be slower
 Speed limited to ~5Msps

 Capable of outputting the

binary number in serial (one
bit at a time) format.

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 ADC Types Comparison

ADC Resolution Comparison

Dual Slope
Flash
Successive Approx
Sigma-Delta

0 5 10 15 20 25
Resolution (Bits)

Type Speed (relative) Cost (relative)

Dual Slope Slow Med
Flash Very Fast High
Successive Appox Medium – Fast Low
Sigma-Delta Slow Low 33
 Digital-to-analog conversion

Based on the digital data, the

Modulator changes characteristics of the “controllable” analog signal
(bandpass analog signal) on the transmitter side to represent the digital
data
Demodulator interprets the analog signal in re-creating the digital data on
the receiver side
Terminology: “modulating digital data into an analog signal”
The analog signal we can control ? Sine Wave, Carrier Signal, Periodic
Signal
Dr. Clincy Lecture 34
 Types of digital-to-analog conversion

Change amplitude to represent a bit

Change frequency to represent a bit
Change phase to represent a bit
Combination of changing both amplitude and phase
to represent a set of bits
Dr. Clincy Lecture 35
Recall
 For digital transmission, bit rate (data
rate) and signal rate (baud rate)
relationship was
 S = N x 1/r where r = # of data
elements per signal element and N is the
data rate in bps (and S is the signaling or
baud rate)
 For analog, r = log2L where L is the
type of signal (versus level)
Dr. Clincy Lecture 36
 Example
An analog signal carries 4 bits per signal element.
If 1000 signal elements are sent per second, find
the bit rate.

Solution
In this case, r = 4, S = 1000, and N is unknown. We
can find the value of N from

Dr. Clincy Lecture 37

 Example
An analog signal has a bit rate of 8000 bps and a
baud rate of 1000 baud. How many data elements
are carried by each signal element? How many
signal elements do we need?
Solution
In this example, S = 1000, N = 8000, and r and L
are unknown. We find first the value of r and then
the value of L.

Dr. Clincy Lecture 38

KUIS
 Jelaskan yang anda tau mengenai konsep ADC?
 Apa yang menjadikan data digital lebih unggul
dibanding dengan data analog
 Apa yang dimaksud dengan resolusi dan
bagaimana menentukan resolusi?
 Apakah yang dimaksud dengan sampling rate?
 Bagaimana cara meningkatkan acurasi dalam
ADC?
 Jelaskan mengenai apa itu quantizing, encoding!

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