A new method for estimating spectral performance of ADC from INL

Abstract

Linearity test and spectral test are two main contributors of ADC test cost which includes data acquisition time and accurate instrumentation. This paper presents a new method for estimating an ADC's spectral performance from its tested INL data. The method does not require additional dedicated test circuitry or data acquisition. The results from INL test are used to compute harmonic distortions and other spectral specifications of the ADC. Memory and computation requirements are very small comparing to those in traditional spectral testing. When combined with a BIST approach for INL testing, the proposed method offers a very low cost BIST solution to ADC spectral testing. Both simulation and experimental results show that the proposed method can estimate THD and SFDR values accurately.