Limit cycles and asymptotic stability of delta-operator formulated discrete-time systems implemented in fixed-point arithmetic

This paper analyzes the problem of global asymptotic stability of delta-operator formulated discrete-time systems implemented in fixed-point arithmetic. It is shown that the free response of such a system tends to produce period one limit cycles if conventional quantization arithmetic schemes are used. Explicit necessary conditions for global asymptotic stability are derived, and these demonstrate that, in almost all cases, fixed-point arithmetic does not allow for global asymptotic stability in delta-operator formulated discrete-time systems that use a short sampling time