Error Models of the Analog to Digital Converters

Error models of the Analog to Digital Converters describe metrological properties of the signal conversion from analog to digital domain in a concise form using few dominant error parameters. Knowledge of the error models allows the end user to provide fast testing in the crucial points of the full input signal range and to use identified error models for post correction in the digital domain. The imperfections of the internal ADC structure determine the error characteristics represented by the nonlinearities as a function of the output code. Progress in the microelectronics and missing information about circuital details together with the lack of knowledge about interfering effects caused by ADC installation prefers another modeling approach based on the input-output behavioral characterization by the input-output error box. Internal links in the ADC structure cause that the input-output error function could be described in a concise form by suitable function. Modeled functional parameters allow determining the integral error parameters of ADC. Paper is a survey of error models starting from the structural models for the most common architectures and their linkage with the behavioral models represented by the simple look up table or the functional description of nonlinear errors for the output codes.