JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY

Department of Electronics and Tele-communication Engineering

UG-IV 1st semester 2022

PPT ON :
Analog to Digital Converters : Workings & Applications

PRESENTED BY:
Amit Bar
Roll-302010701004
Contents

1. Introduction
2. Basics of ADC
3. Working of ADC
4. Features of ADC
5. Types of ADC & their Workings
5. ADC ICs
6. Applications
7. IC Manufacturing Companies
8. Conclusion
Introduction

Real life example

 What is analog signal ?

• An analog signal is a continuous wave that changes over a time period & carries
some information. At any instance of time analog signal has a measurable
amplitude.
• A continuous sine wave is an example of analog continuous time signal.
 What is digital signal ?

• A digital signal is discrete in nature but quantize in amplitude & carries

information in binary form.
• This signal can be represented by square waves.
 What is Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) ?

ADC (Analog to digital converter) is an electronic device that converts a

continuous analogue input signal to discrete digital numbers (binary).

Analog: Digital:
• Real World signal that contains noise • Discrete in time and value
• continuous in time • Binary digit that contain values 0 or 1
 Understanding of ADC

• Analog to Digital converter (ADC) is an electronic device that converts analog

signals to its equivalent digital signals.

• ADC translate analog signals, real world signals like temperature, pressure,

voltage, current, distance, or light intensity, into a digital representation of that
signal. This digital representation can then be processed, manipulated,
computed, transmitted or stored.
 Why is ADC important ?

• All microcontroller store information using digital logic

• Compress information to digital from for efficient storage
• Medium for storing digital data is more robust
• Digital data transfer is more efficient
• Digital data is easily reproducible
• Provides link between real world signal and data storage
 How ADC Works ?
Two stages-

A. Sampling:
Process of converting continuous time analog signal into a discrete time signal by
taking the “samples” at discrete-time intervals .Sampling analog signals makes them
discrete in time but still continuous valued .

• Sample-Hold Circuit
• Aliasing

B. Quantizing & Encoding:

Process of converting discrete-time continuous valued signal to discrete time
discrete valued signal.
Encoding is the process of converting the quantized signals into a digital
representation. Numbers of bits used to represent the Quantized signal.

• Resolution
• Quantization Error
 A. Sampling

Sample & Hold :

• Reduction of a continuous signal to a discrete signal

• Achieved through sampling and holding circuit
• Switch On- sampling of signal time to charge capacitor
• Switch Off- voltage stored in the capacitor hold operation
• Must hold sample value constant for digital conversion
• Sampling rate depends on clock frequency
• Use Nyquist Criterion
• Increasing sampling rate increases accuracy of conversion
• Possibility of Aliasing

Flat-Top sampling
Technique shown here

Sampling signal =Tw

Sampling period Ts =1/fs
Nyquist Criterion fs>= 2fmax
Aliasing :
Aliasing occurs when there is an overlap in the shifted, perioidic copies of our
original signal's FT, i.e. spectrum. In the frequency domain, one will notice that
part of the signal will overlap with the periodic signals next to it.
Due to aliasing we can not reconstruct the original signal properly .

• High and low frequency samples are indistinguishable

• Results in improper conversion of the input signal
• Usually exist when Nyquist criterion is violated
• Prevent through the use of low pass(Anti-Aliasing) filters
 B. Quantizing & Encoding

Number of Quantization levels, L=2^N where N is the Number of bit used to encode
the data.
• Approximate a continuous range of values and replaces it with a binary number
• Error is introduced between input voltage and output binary representation
• Error depends on the resolution of the ADC
Quantization Error:
The quantization error is defined as the difference between the actual analog input
value and the nearest quantization level.
Quantization error also introduces noise, called quantization noise, to the sample
signal. The higher the resolution of the A/D converter, the lower the quantization error
and the smaller the quantization noise. Better the resolution ,Error is less.
Max Quantization Error is calculated by the following formula,
Resolution:
Resolution or step size defines the smallest voltage change that can be recognized by
ADC and thus causes a change in the digital output.

Better in Resolution improves the accuracy of the conversion

 Features of ADC

Many characteristics of ADCs must be assessed and evaluated before being designed
into a system. The most basic of these characteristics are
Speed-
Speed refers to samples-per-second, and measures how quickly the device can
accurately convert an analog signal/voltage.

Resolution- 
Resolution or step size defines the smallest voltage (or current) change that can be
recognized by ADC and thus causes a change in the digital output . For example, an
8-bit ADC that generates a maximum output voltage of 5 volts has a step size or
resolution of (5V / 2^8 ) = 19.5 mV. Sometimes, the resolution is stated in the
percentage value & sometimes expressed by the number of bits (N) of the ADC.
Dynamic Range-
The dynamic range refers to the ratio between the largest and smallest values an ADC
can accurately measure. In other words, it’s the ratio between the strongest
undistorted signal to the minimally detectable signal.
Dynamic Range=6.02*N (approx.) where N is the number of bit

Accuracy-
The accuracy of a converter refers to how many bits, from conversion to conversion,
are repeatable. That is, accuracy reflects how true the ADC’s output reflects the actual
input. Accuracy is determined by the DC specifications for gain, offset, and linearity
(integral nonlinearity and differential nonlinearity).
Increase in number of Quantization levels (resolution bits) results more accuracy.

.
 Types of ADC

5 major types of ADC are the followings

I. Flash ADC
II. Successive Approximation ADC
III. Dual Slope ADC
IV. Delta-Sigma ADC
V. Pipelined ADC
i. Flash ADC

Components of Flash ADC:

For N bit Flash ADC we need-
• one 2^N:N Priority Encoder
• (2^N-1) number of Comparator
• 2^N number of Resistor (Resistive Voltage Divider network) of same values
8V 2.3 V Analog input=2.3V Digital output=010

-
7V
-
6V

5V
- 0

4V
- 1
3V
-
0
2V +
1V +
• Fastest in the order of nano seconds
• Simple Operation Theory
• Speed is limited by only gate and comparator propagation delay

• For higher bit of resolution huge numbers of comparator are required

• Expensive
ii. Successive Approximation ADC

Components of Successive Approximation ADC:

For N bit we need-
• A N bit register called SAR
• A N bit DAC
• A comparator

(MSB) a1 a2 a3 a4
Let, Vin=10.2 V, Vref=16 V Analog input= 10.2 V
Digital output= 1010
Initial data of SAR=1000
Vin>VDAC : SAR hold the present value and next bit goes to 1
Vin<VDAC : present bit set to zero and next bit goes to 1
• High Accuracy
• Low power consumption
• Conversion time is constant(for N bit ADC conversion time=N*TClk) &
independent of input
• Easy to use
iii. Dual Slope ADC
Elements need for N bit Dual slope ADC are the followings-
• A comparator
• An integrator
• A N Counter

+ Vc -

V0 _
+

Taking Vin positive and Vref negative

 When Vin is positive, V0 is negative,which makes comparator output positive,so clock will
be given to counter and counter will start from 0000 to a fixed count (let 1111.)
After 1111, the control logic,reset the counter (0000) again & switched the integrator i/p
from Vin to Vref.

Counter Counts the number of

clk pulses during time T2,that
provides digital o/p.
• High Accuracy
• Fewer adverse affects from noise

• Slow
• Single slope depends on R & C but dual slope does not.
ADC Comparison
 Different Types of ADC ICs

IC Image Description Price

(Rs.)
The ADC0804 IC ( DIP-20 Package) is CMOS 8-Bit 175
successive approximation A/D converters which
use a modified potentiometric ladder and are
designed to operate with the 8080A control bus via
three-state outputs.

The ADC0808 IC(DIP-28 Package) data acquisition 135

component is a monolithic CMOS device with an 8-
bit successive approximation A/D converter, 8-
channel multiplexer and microprocessor
compatible control logic.

ADS1248IPWR – 24-Bit 2kSPS 8-Ch Delta-Sigma 1400

ADC for Precision Sensor Measurement SMD-28
Package
IC Image Description Price Rs

The AD7820 is a high speed microprocessor 2000

compatible 8 bit ADC which uses a flash
conversion technique to achieve a conversion
time of 1.36 micro second.

The TC7109A is a 12-bit, CMOS low power 100

Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC). Only eight
passive components and a crystal are
required to form a complete dual slope
integrating ADC.

The ICL7135 precision DIP-28 Package 220

A/D converter, with its multiplexed BCD
output and digit drivers, combines dual-slope
conversion and is ideally suited for the visual
display DVM/DPM market

The HI7190IP is a monolithic 1275

instrumentation, sigma delta 24-Bit A/D
converter which operates from ±5V supplies

In our digital control lab LM0809 ADC is used in Sun Tracker Experiment.
 Applications of ADC

The applications of ADC are limitless. ADCs are present in all

computing devices .Some of these applications
 given below:

Cell phones:
operate on the digital voice signal. Originally the voice is in analog
form, which is converted through ADC before feeding to the cell phone
transmitter.

Images and videos capturing Devices:
captured using camera is stored in any digital device, is also converted
into digital form using ADC. Digital camera use flash ADC.

Medical Purpose:
Medical Imaging like x-ray & MRI also uses ADC to convert images into
Digital form before modification. They are then modified for better
understanding.
Digital Multimeter:
Dual Slope ADC is used .

Digital Oscilloscope:
 DSO also contains ADC for converting Analog signal into
a digital signal for display purposes & different other
features.

Air conditioner:
AC  contains temperature sensors for maintaining the
room temperature. This temperature is converted into
digital form using ADC so that onboard controller can
read & adjust the cooling effect

CD & DVD:
Music from the cassette is also converted into the digital
form such as CDs and thumb
drives using ADC converters.
Manufacturer
 Conclusion

• Digital signals are less noisy & operate in high speed for processing &
transferring. But physical signals are always in analog.
• In today’s modern world almost every device has become the digital version of
itself & they need to have ADC in it. Because it has to operate in digital domain
which can be only acquired using analog to digital converter (ADC).