Implementation and Performance of a General Purpose Incremental Sigma-Delta Converter

A practical methodology for implementing a general purpose Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC) providing remarkable properties is described. It is based on incremental sigma-delta. Using the specific analogue and digital design, the ADC will show perfect and easily scalable staircase characteristics under nominal conditions. The ADC is generally useful, e.g. in data acquisition systems, and shows properties that are superior to other commonly used ADC topologies for such applications, like Successive Approximation Register. Resolution is selectable by modulator order and number of clock cycles. Guidelines for a practical implementation are described. Its robustness to imperfections is analysed. An existing implementation for space application with test results is presented.