C-code software implementation of standardized ADC test methods

Parameters characterizing analog-to-digital converters are evaluated by means of several techniques defined in the frequency-, time- or amplitude-domain. Published scientific literature does not explicitly indicate which is the optimal algorithm to be employed for estimating each figure of merit. In particular, IEEE standards 1241 and 1057 suggest the use of the frequency domain test for choosing the window that reduces the spectral leakage while maximizing the accuracy of the estimates. Such information is critical when the algorithm has to be applied to data acquired from high-order /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ converters with high oversampling ratio, for which the windowing process is needed also if the coherent-sampling condition is applied. In this paper, a software environment for evaluating performance of any kind of digital converters by means of several techniques is presented. The software is highly portable since it has been written in C-language and calculates automatically the window which maximizes the accuracy of the estimates. Implementation algorithms have been applied to experimental data in order to validate the effectiveness of the software environment and of the proposed windows.