Adc and Dac Modelling and Testing State of the Art

The analog to digital front ends of measuring instruments affect crucially the interpretation of the signals acquired from the real world into the digital domain and their back presentation. The signal processing in the digital domain due to its stability meets usually the requirements on the uncertainty of the measuring instruments easily. ADCs and DACs influence dominantly the accuracy of instruments and limit the signal dynamics and their applicability. An exact error description and standardized testing methods are required by the end user. Moreover, the simplification of the error description by dominant error parameters is a permanent task for the metrologist and producers. This paper is aimed at providing a metrological overview of ADC and DAC topics by referring to their: i) architectures, ii) modelling and testing, and iii) standardization.