
LTC1400
8
1400fa
APPLICATIO S I FOR ATIO
W
U
where N is the effective number of bits of resolution and
S/(N + D) is expressed in dB. At the maximum sampling
rate of 400kHz, the LTC1400 maintains very good ENOBs
up to the Nyquist input frequency of 200kHz (refer to
Figure 3).
FREQUENCY (kHz)
0
40
80 100
140
180
20
60
120
160
200
AMPLITUDE
(dB)
1400 F02b
0
–10
–20
–30
–40
–50
–60
–70
–80
–90
–100
–110
–120
fSAMPLE = 400kHz
fIN = 199.121kHz
SINAD = 72.1dB
THD = –80dB
Figure 2b. LTC1400 Nonaveraged, 4096 Point FFT
Plot with 200kHz Input Frequency in Bipolar Mode
INPUT FREQUENCY (Hz)
10k
EFFECTIVE
NUMBER
OF
BITS
SIGNAL/(NOISE
+
DISTORTION)
(dB)
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
74
68
62
56
50
100k
1M
1400 F03
NYQUIST
FREQUENCY
fSAMPLE = 400kHz
Figure 3. Effective Bits and Signal-to-Noise +
Distortion vs Input Frequency in Bipolar Mode
Total Harmonic Distortion
Total harmonic distortion (THD) is the ratio of the RMS
sum of all harmonics of the input signal to the fundamental
itself. The out-of-band harmonics alias into the frequency
band between DC and half of the sampling frequency. THD
is expressed as:
THD
V
Vn
V
=
+
+…
20
2
3
4
1
2
log
where V1 is the RMS amplitude of the fundamental fre-
quencyandV2throughVnaretheamplitudesofthesecond
through nth harmonics. THD vs input frequency is shown
in Figure 4. The LTC1400 has good distortion performance
up to the Nyquist frequency and beyond.
INPUT FREQUENCY (Hz)
10k
AMPLITUDE
(dB
BELOW
THE
FUNDAMENTAL)
0
–10
–20
–30
–40
–50
–60
–70
–80
–90
–100
100k
1M
1400 F04
2ND HARMONIC
THD
3RD HARMONIC
fSAMPLE = 400kHz
Intermodulation Distortion
If the ADC input signal consists of more than one spectral
component, the ADC transfer function nonlinearity can
produce intermodulation distortion (IMD) in addition to
THD. IMD is the change in one sinusoidal input caused
by the presence of another sinusoidal input at a different
frequency.
If two pure sine waves of frequencies fa and fb are applied
to the ADC input, nonlinearities in the ADC transfer func-
tion can create distortion products at sum and difference
frequencies of mfa ± nfb, where m and n = 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.
For example, the 2nd order IMD terms include (fa + fb)
and (fa – fb) while the 3rd order IMD terms includes (2fa
+ fb), (2fa – fb), (fa + 2fb) and (fa – 2fb). If the two input
sine waves are equal in magnitude, the value (in decibels)
of the 2nd order IMD products can be expressed by the
following formula.
IMD fa fb
fa fb
±
(
) =
±
20log
Amplitude at (
)
Amplitude at fa
Figure 4. Distortion vs Input Frequency in Bipolar Mode