Metrological characterization of high-performance delta-sigma ADCs: A case study of CERN DS-22

Metrological characterization of high-performance ΔΣ Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) poses severe challenges to reference instrumentation and standard methods. In this paper, most important tests related to noise and effective resolution, nonlinearity, environmental uncertainty, and stability are proved and validated in the specific case of a high-performance ΔΣ ADC. In particular, tests setups are proposed and discussed and the definitions used to assess the performance are clearly stated in order to identify procedures and guidelines for high-resolution ADCs characterization. An experimental case study of the high-performance ΔΣ ADC DS-22 developed at CERN is reported and discussed by presenting effective alternative test setups. Experimental results show that common characterization methods by the IEEE standards 1241 [1] and 1057 [2] cannot be used and alternative strategies turn out to be effective.