Are ΣΔ ADCs Greek to You?

摘要

Sigma-delta ADCs are inherently monotonic, no matter how many bits of resolution they provide. Performance is designed in and does not depend on exact component values or component matching. This characteristic is very important to a manufacturer, commented Chris Mostoller, Maxim's business director for ADCs. He said that sigma-delta converters are displacing traditional dual-slope ADCs in the panel-meter market, partially because testing conventional high-resolution ADCs is expensive. Great care still must be taken with sigma-delta products, but linearity and monotonicity are guaranteed by design. As a result, testing can be much faster and cost less.