Frequency domain analysis for dynamic nonlinearity measurement in A/D converters

This paper discusses the problem of measuring the dynamic systematic error or the dynamic input-output characteristic of an analog-to-digital-converter (ADC) stimulated by a sinusoidal input. First of all, it is shown that the statistical methods, although widely used, yield misleading results in dynamic conditions, i.e., when the converter characteristic presents hysteresis. Second, this paper presents a modified version of a frequency-domain method (Chebyshev test), previously developed by the authors for testing static devices. Both simulation and experimental results show that the Chebyshev test for dynamic nonlinearities is a very fast way to measure the input-output characteristic of an ADC affected by hysteresis error.