MT-010: The Importance of Data Converter Static Specifications-Don't Lose Sight of the Basics!

In the 1950s and 1960s, dc performance specifications such as integral nonlinearity, differential nonlinearity, monotonicity, no missing codes, gain error, offset error, and drift, etc., were primarily used to characterize data converters. These specifications were adequate during this era, because most early applications (with the exception of PCM and radar, for example) dealt with dc or low frequency signals such as those encountered in industrial measurement and process control. With the advent of microprocessors and digital signal processing (DSP) in the 1970s and 1980s, dynamic performance specifications, such as signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), spurious free dynamic range (SFDR), etc., were required in order to adequately characterize converters for more sophisticated signal processing applications.