USING SINUSOIDAL INSTEAD OF TRIANGULAR STIMULUS SIGNALS ON THE IEEE 1057 STANDARD RANDOM NOISE TEST OF ADCS

The random-noise test for analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) prescribed by the IEEE Standard 1057 for Digitizing Waveform Recorders relies on a triangular signal to stimulate the converter under test. This paper shows that a sinusoidal stimulus may be used in its place without changing the estimator. Doing so makes the test more flexible and, more importantly, opens the way to sine-fitting algorithms for recovering the initial phase of the two data records that the test requires. Once known, this initial phase allows the two records to be aligned, reducing the error that additive noise introduces through the acquisition trigger. It is proved that the estimator obtained for the sinusoidal case coincides with the one recommended by the standard for the triangular case, and the two are compared, together with the direct-current case, both analytically and through their expected values and errors.