A noise model for quantized data

The paper analyzes the overall conversion error of a noisy analog-to-digital (A/D) converter affected by Gaussian noise at its input or generated within the A/D itself. It is shown that under mild conditions concerning the ratio between the input noise standard deviation and the quantization step, the overall conversion error can be modeled by a Gaussian random variable uncorrelated with the input sequence. The power of the global conversion error is evaluated in closed formulae together with its degree of variability. Numerical simulations support the proposed analysis.