A noise generator for analog-to-digital converter testing

This paper describes the implementation of a white noise generator to be used as the input signal of a new method for testing analog-to-digital converters in order to detect and to evaluate integral and differential nonlinearity errors. The main goal of this method is to avoid the comparison of the analog-to-digital output with a known and very precise reference input. The proposed white noise generator is easily implemented, and can reduce the complexity of generating other excitation signals. The proposed innovative method uses noise as the excitation signal. The use of this kind of signal avoids concerns about the inherent noise present in all electronic systems. The testing technique is based on the analysis of the spectral response of the ADC output. This paper covers the generation of the excitation signal, and simulation and practical results are presented to prove the efficiency of the method.