Medical ultrasound is a noninvasive method of imaging the body’s internal structures (like organs) by transmitting high-frequency waves and measuring the reflections that occur at various boundaries within, such…
Medical ultrasound is a noninvasive method of imaging the body’s internal structures (like organs) by transmitting high-frequency waves and measuring the reflections that occur at various boundaries within, such…
As battery-powered systems become more common, quickly identifying a failing battery so that it can be replaced is becoming increasingly important. From an individual battery powering a mobile phone to a bank of…
The digital multimeter (DMM) is a centerpiece in any electronics lab, but as the precision of electronics continues to increase, so does the need for DMMs that can quickly and accurately measure current, voltage…
This technical article was updated on July 23, 2020.
High-precision data-acquisition systems are designed to minimize errors from various system components, like those introduced by switching transients on the reference input of a data converter. In the…
In my last post, I talked about the different types of digital filters commonly used in delta-sigma analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). In this post, let’s focus on the most common type of digital filter used in…
Have you ever wondered how delta-sigma analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) can get such fine resolution across a variety of bandwidths? The secret lies in the digital filter. Delta-sigma ADCs are different…
In part 1 of this series, I explained how you can calculate the input voltage to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) by multiplying the ADC’s output code by the least-significant bit (LSB) size using Equation 1:
To calculate the ADC’s LSB size…
Many newcomers to analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) wonder how to convert their ADC code to a voltage. Or perhaps their question is specific to the application, such as how to convert the ADC code back to a physical quantity like current, temperature…
Have you ever evaluated the noise performance of an ADC and found that your measured performance differs from the specified performance given in the device datasheet? Achieving high resolution in a precision data…
This technical article was updated on July 23, 2020.
When designing a data acquisition system (DAQ) for processing AC signals, your test results may not meet your required specifications, mainly due to poor distortion performance. What should you do under…
In my last post, I discussed two important characteristics of delta-sigma analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) that simplify the design of your anti-aliasing filter: an oversampling architecture and a supplemental digital decimation filter. The oversampling…
My last post introduced the concept of signal aliasing and how it manifests itself in data-acquisition systems. When out-of-band signals alias into the passband, they overlap lower frequency content and mask the true signals you’re trying to measure.…
Have you ever seen the wheels on a car actually spin backward while the car is moving forward? Barring an extreme stunt, I’ll bet you probably saw it in a car commercial. Have you ever wondered why?
Real life happens in continuous time, but a video…
Here’s a frustrating situation: You finally get your analog-to-digital converter (ADC) up and running, but things are just a little bit off. You put in a voltage, but your ADC reports something different.
What’s wrong?
It looks like everything…