Phase-plane analysis of high speed A/D converters with sine waves

Describes a method of measuring analog-to-digital converter (ADC) errors by applying a sine wave at the input and comparing it to the digitized output data. This permits appropriate corrections to be made to the ADC circuitry. The authors present the details of phase-plane analysis of several state-of-the-art ADCs. They illustrate the power of this technique by presenting an example that reveals imperfections which result in a small step function in the transfer function of the ADC. This technique provides the designers with valuable insight into the cause of the ADC errors which can improve the performance of the devices