On the applications of sinusoidal signals in analog to digital converter testing

Analog‑to‑Digital converters are an essential component of modern electronics systems, especially those that interface with the real world through sensors and actuators. Their testing is thus paramount in evaluating the performance of those systems. That evaluation is carried out most often using sinusoidal stimulus signals. After a brief overview of applications where sinusoidal signals play a vital role, we focus on their use when characterizing analog-to-digital converters using different test methods that aim at estimating several metrological characteristics like frequency response, signal-to-noise ratio, linearity, harmonic distortion, and spurious free dynamic range.