Analogue to digital converter - definition
Analogue to digital converter - definition
Analog-to-digital converter (ADC, or analog-to-digital converter) is an electronic circuit used to convert an analog signal, varying continuously, into a corresponding digital signal, represented as discrete numerical values. The operation of the converter is based on sampling the input signal at specified intervals and quantising its amplitude to the nearest value that can be stored using a specified number of bits.
ADCs are a key component in systems that require digital processing of data from real physical sources such as voltage, temperature, pressure, sound or light. They are commonly found in microcontrollers, measurement boards, medical devices, audio equipment, Automation and Data Acquisition Systems.
The quality of the representation of an analogue signal depends on the parameters of the ADC, such as resolution (expressed in bits), sampling rate, input voltage range and processing accuracy. Higher resolution allows small changes in signal amplitude to be represented more accurately, while a higher sampling rate allows fast time waveforms to be analysed. Others converter architectures are used depending on the application requirements, including successive approximation (SAR), sigma-delta, parallel (flash) or pipelined.
The conversion process also requires appropriate adjustment of the input signal, so ADCs are often accompanied by conditioning circuits such as amplifiers, anti-aliasing filters and multiplexers. Choosing the right converter is an important step in the design of measurement systems and digital signal processing, affecting the accuracy, speed and reliability of the entire system.
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