CIRCUIT LEVEL SWITCHED CAPACITOR ADC

May 2, 2012

AIDOO-MENSAH MIRIAM (10384405)

WILLIAMS HAROLD HUGH K.B. (10384068)
NORTEY YEBOAH JOSEPH (10384655)
ESSANDOH NANA TWUM (10385994)

Contents
1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Denition of Digital

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.2

Denition of Analogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.3

ANALOGUE-DIGITAL AND DIGITAL-ANALOGUE CONVERTERS

. . . . . . . . . . . .

MECHANISM OF CONVERSION

IMPORTANCE IN COMMUNICATION

MODULATION

4.1

4.2

5
6

ANALOGUE MODULATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.1.1

AMPLITUDE MODULATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.1.2

FREQUENCY MODULATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.1.3

QUADRATURE AMPLITUDE MODULATION

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.1.4

SPACE MODULATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.1.5

SINGLE-SIDEBAND MODULATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.1.6

PHASE MODULATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

DIGITAL MODULATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.2.1

PHASE-SHIFTING KEYING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.2.2

FREQUENCY-SHIFT KEYING

4.2.3

MINIMUM FREQUENCY-SHIFT KEYING

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6
6

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SOME OF THE MODULATION TECHNIQUES

OVERVIEW OF THE PROCESS OF ANALOGUE DIGITAL CONVERSION

6.1

SAMPLING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.2

QUANTIZATION NOISE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10

6.3

DECIMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11

MATLAB SIMULATION

12

MODEL OF SIMPLE BAND PASS FILTER IN PSPICE

14

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Denition of Digital

A method of storing, processing and transmitting information through the use of distinct electronic or optical
pulses that represent the binary digits 0 and 1.

1.2 Denition of Analogue

Analogue is a transmission standard that uses electrical impulses to emulate the audio waveform of sound.

1.3 ANALOGUE-DIGITAL AND DIGITAL-ANALOGUE CONVERTERS

When you use a phone, the variations in your voice are transformed by a microphone into similar variations
in an electrical signal and carried down the line to the exchange. An analogue-to-digital converter (ADC,
A/D or A to D) is the device responsible for the conversion of a continuous quantity to a discrete time digital
representation. An ADC may also provide an isolated measurement. The reverse operation is performed by
a digital-to-analogue converter (DAC). The analogue to digital conversion is the key process taking place
in every hardware device.
technologies.

It is this conversion through which it becomes the base of all communication

Almost all the hardware devices are digital and hence it is an important phenomenon to

convert analogue signals into digital to perform various applications that hardware supports. Analogue to
digital conversion remained a base of telecommunications for years as well.

Though it is still used today

in for communication purposes but the hardware devices are aimed to operate at digital mode these days.
Therefore most of the devices are now digital and hence do not require immense analogue conversion in order
to run various applications.

MECHANISM OF CONVERSION

The digital conversion means the use of binary coding for data transmission and output. The digital signals
work only by using only two numbers known as 0 and 1. Any number which is dierent from the binary
code is eliminated from its way. The analogue signal goes through an ADC integrated circuit chip which
analyzes it by taking samples in discrete steps, which is a process called "quantizing .

At each step the

signal is rapidly matched against 255 digital levels (for an 8-bit analogue to digital converter).
Each of the 255 levels has a matching eight bit digital (0 or 1) word associated with it. Thus the signal
level at each step is converted into a binary number to represent that level, which is called "encoding", and
the resulting stream of encoded steps is sent onwards as the digital signal.
This is the reason why we do not hear any additional noises when we turn on a song in a CD. Analogue to
digital conversion is the key of compressing a bulk of information into binary numbers and store it in computer
and other storage devices. This digital conversion allows for plenty of data to be stored on a single small
machine like in laptops, workstations and in desktop computer. This helps in saving bandwidth and storage
space. In a PC the analogue signals are converted to digital signals with the help of microprocessors. This
mechanism is quiet complex and needs necessary hardware and software capabilities. The basic mechanism
involves around converting continues signals to discrete signals.

IMPORTANCE IN COMMUNICATION

Telecommunication is the transmission of information over signicant distances to communicate. In earlier

times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore
telegraphs, signal ags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns,
or sent by loud whistles, for example. In the modern age of electricity and electronics, telecommunications
now also includes the use of electrical devices such as the telegraph, telephone, and teleprinter, as well as the
use of radio and microwave communications, as well as ber optics and their associated electronics, plus the
use of the orbiting satellites and the Internet. Communications signals can be either by analogue signals or

digital signals. There are analogue communication systems and digital communication systems. Analogue
signals can be converted to digital signals and vice versa.
Analogue signals provide a number of advantages:

They use less bandwidth and are more accurate.

Notwithstanding, the eects of random noise can make signal loss and distortion impossible to recover.
This does not mean that digital signals are perfect. They come with their own cons such as sampling error.
Also, digital communications require greater bandwidth than analogue to transmit the same information.
Furthermore, the detection of digital signals requires the communications system to be synchronized, whereas
generally speaking this is not the case with analogue systems.
The analogue to digital converters have found homes in such applications as communications systems
due to various reasons. Firstly, its necessity in communication today is the high quality sound it provides.
For an analogue signal, the signal is varied continuously with respect to the information. In a digital signal,
the information is encoded as a set of discrete values (for example, a set of ones and zeros).

During the

propagation and reception, the information contained in analogue signals will inevitably be degraded by
undesirable physical noise. Commonly, the noise in a communication system can be expressed as adding or
subtracting from the desirable signal in a completely random way.

This form of noise is called "additive

noise", with the understanding that the noise can be negative or positive at dierent instants of time. On
the other hand, unless the additive noise disturbance exceeds a certain threshold, the information contained
in digital signals will remain intact. Their resistance to noise represents a key advantage of digital signals
over analogue signals. Thus, only digitized information can be transported through a noisy channel without
degradation since anything apart from the zeros and ones is discarded.
Modern communication also employs the use of analogue to digital conversion because it is less expensive
in nature. The key feature of these converters is that they are the only low cost conversion method which
provides both high dynamic range and exibility in converting low bandwidth input signals.
Also, it allows for greater size messages to be transferred as it compresses a bulk of binary information
and transfers it into the computer storage and other memory devices. Since the digital counterpart of an
analogue signal is just a bunch of numbers, these can be easily compressed. The compression is done to save
storage space or bandwidth.
A digital signal provides more reliability, easy manipulation and compatibility with other digital systems,
which are now the most common world systems.
Finally, the analogue to digital conversion increases the bandwidth and the speed of the hardware devices.
The modern wireless applications and radar systems require high speed signal conversion in order to deliver
accurate and swift message to the ultimate consumer.

MODULATION

This is the process of varying one or more properties of a high-frequency periodic waveform, called the carrier
signal, with a modulating signal which typically contains information to be transmitted.This is done in a
similar fashion to a musician modulating a tone (a periodic waveform) from a musical instrument by varying
its volume, timing and pitch.
In telecommunications, modulation is the process of conveying a message signal, for example a digital
bit stream or an analog audio signal, inside another signal that can be physically transmitted.
A device that performs modulation is known as a modulator and a device that performs the inverse
operation of modulation is known as a demodulator (sometimes detector or demod). Thus,a device that can
do both operations is a modem (from "modulatordemodulator"). The three key parameters of a periodic
waveform are its amplitude ("volume"), its phase ("timing") and its frequency ("pitch").
There are two main forms of modulation: analog modulation and digital modulation. These facilitate
frequency division multiplexing (FDM), where several low pass information signals are transferred simultaneously over the same shared physical medium, using separate passband channels (several dierent carrier
frequencies).

4.1 ANALOGUE MODULATION

In analog modulation, the modulation is applied continuously in response to the analog information signal.Some techniques under this type of modulation are:

Amplitude Modulation, Frequency Modulation

,Single-sideband Modulation, Space Modulation, Phase Modulation, Quadrature Amplitude Modulation.

The main aim here is to transfer an analog baseband (or lowpass) signal, for example an audio signal
or TV signal, over an analog bandpass channel at a dierent frequency, for example over a limited radio
frequency band or a cable TV network channel.
The main forms of analogue modulation techniques are: Amplitude modulation, Phase modulation and
Frequency modulation.

4.1.1

AMPLITUDE MODULATION

Amplitude modulation (AM) is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. AM works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in
relation to the information being sent. For example, changes in signal strength may be used to specify the
sounds to be reproduced by a loudspeaker, or the light intensity of television pixels.

4.1.2

FREQUENCY MODULATION

In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation (FM) conveys information over a carrier
wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. FM is widely used for broadcasting music and speech, twoway radio systems, magnetic tape-recording systems and some video-transmission systems.It is also used
in telemetry, radar, seismic prospecting and newborn EEG seizure monitoring.In radio systems, frequency
modulation with sucient bandwidth provides an advantage in cancelling naturally-occurring noise.

4.1.3

QUADRATURE AMPLITUDE MODULATION

Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)is a special type of modulation as it is both an analog and a
digital modulation scheme. It conveys two analog message signals, or two digital bit streams, by changing
(modulating) the amplitudes of two carrier waves, using the amplitude-shift keying (ASK) digital modulation
scheme or amplitude modulation (AM) analog modulation scheme. The two carrier waves, usually sinusoids,
are out of phase with each other by 90 and are thus called quadrature carriers or quadrature components
 hence the name of the scheme.

The modulated waves are summed, and the resulting waveform is a

combination of both phase-shift keying (PSK) and amplitude-shift keying (ASK), or (in the analog case) of
phase modulation (PM) and amplitude modulation. In the digital QAM case, a nite number of at least two
phases and at least two amplitudes are used. PSK modulators are often designed using the QAM principle,
but are not considered as QAM since the amplitude of the modulated carrier signal is constant. QAM is
used extensively as a modulation scheme for digital telecommunication systems. Spectral eciencies of 6
bit/s/Hz can be achieved with QAM. QAM modulation is being used in optical ber systems as bit rates
increase  QAM16 and QAM64 can be optically emulated with a 3-path interferometer.

4.1.4

SPACE MODULATION

Space modulation is a radio Amplitude Modulation technique used in Instrument Landing Systems that
incorporates the use of multiple antennas fed with various radio frequency powers and phases to create different depths of modulation within various volumes of three-dimensional airspace. This modulation method
diers from internal modulation methods inside most other radio transmitters in that the phases and powers
of the two individual signals mix within airspace, rather than in a modulator.

4.1.5

SINGLE-SIDEBAND MODULATION

Single-sideband modulation (SSB) or Single-sideband suppressed-carrier (SSB-SC) is a renement of amplitude modulation that more eciently uses electrical power and bandwidth.Amplitude modulation produces
a modulated output signal that has twice the bandwidth of the original baseband signal. Single-sideband
modulation avoids this bandwidth doubling, and the power wasted on a carrier, at the cost of somewhat
increased device complexity and more dicult tuning at the receiver.

4.1.6

PHASE MODULATION

Phase modulation (PM) is a form of modulation that represents information as variations in the instantaneous
phase of a carrier wave. Unlike its more popular counterpart, frequency modulation (FM), PM is not very
widely used for radio transmissions. This is because it tends to require more complex receiving hardware
and there can be ambiguity problems in determining whether, for example, the signal has changed phase by
+180 or -180. PM is used, however, in digital music synthesizers such as the Yamaha DX7, even though
these instruments are usually referred to as "FM" synthesizers (both modulation types sound very similar,
but PM is usually easier to implement in this area).

4.2 DIGITAL MODULATION

In digital modulation, an analogue carrier signal is modulated by a discrete signal.

Digital modulation

methods can be considered as digital-to-analog conversion, and the corresponding demodulation or detection
as analog-to-digital conversion.

The changes in the carrier signal are chosen from a nite number of M

alternative symbols (the modulation alphabet).According to one denition of digital signal, the modulated
signal is a digital signal, and according to another denition, the modulation is a form of digital-to-analog
conversion. The aim of digital modulation is to transfer a digital bit stream over an analog bandpass channel,
for example over the public switched telephone network (where a bandpass lter limits the frequency range
to between 300 and 3400 Hz), or over a limited radio frequency band.
A band-pass lter is a device that passes frequencies within a certain range and rejects (attenuates)
frequencies outside that range.A bandpass signal is a signal containing a band of frequencies away from zero
frequency, such as a signal that comes out of a bandpass lter.
There are three major classes of digital modulation techniques used for transmission of digitally represented data:
Amplitude-shift keying (ASK) Frequency-shift keying (FSK) Phase-shift keying (PSK) All convey data
by changing some aspect of a base signal, the carrier wave (usually a sinusoid), in response to a data signal.

4.2.1

PHASE-SHIFTING KEYING

With Phase-shifting keying, it conveys data by changing, or modulating, the phase of a reference signal (the
carrier wave).PSK uses a nite number of phases, each assigned a unique pattern of binary digits. Usually,
each phase encodes an equal number of bits. Each pattern of bits forms the symbol that is represented by
the particular phase.

4.2.2

FREQUENCY-SHIFT KEYING

Frequency-shift keying (FSK) is a frequency modulation scheme in which digital information is transmitted
through discrete frequency changes of a carrier wave.[1] The simplest FSK is binary FSK (BFSK). BFSK
uses a pair of discrete frequencies to transmit binary (0s and 1s) information. With this scheme, the "1" is
called the mark frequency and the "0" is called the space frequency.

4.2.3

MINIMUM FREQUENCY-SHIFT KEYING

Minimum frequency-shift keying or minimum-shift keying (MSK) is a particular spectrally ecient form of
coherent FSK. In MSK the dierence between the higher and lower frequency is identical to half the bit rate.
Consequently, the waveforms used to represent a 0 and a 1 bit dier by exactly half a carrier period.
Amplitude-shift keying (ASK) is a form of modulation that represents digital data as variations in the
amplitude of a carrier wave.ASK uses a nite number of amplitudes, each assigned a unique pattern of binary
digits. Usually, each amplitude encodes an equal number of bits. Each pattern of bits forms the symbol that
is represented by the particular amplitude.ASK is also linear and sensitive to atmospheric noise, distortions,
propagation conditions on dierent routes Both ASK modulation and demodulation processes are relatively
inexpensive. The ASK technique is also commonly used to transmit digital data over optical ber.

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SOME OF THE MODULATION TECHNIQUES

With amplitude modulation, the amplitude of the carrier varies, but in phase modulation and frequenucy
modulation, the phase and frequency of the carrier varies respectively.
Phase modulation is not widely used in radio transmission, but FM is.
QAM in analog modulation conveys two analog message signals by changing (modulating) the amplitudes of two carrier waves, using the amplitude modulation (AM) analog modulation scheme, but in digital
modulation, the amplitudes of the carrier waves are modulated by conveying two digital bit streams using
the amplitude-shift keying (ASK) digital modulation scheme...

OVERVIEW OF THE PROCESS OF ANALOGUE DIGITAL

CONVERSION

By now you should have a sense of how analogue and digital signals are dierent. An analogue signal is a
 real-world signal. It can take on any value and can change continuously. A digital signal, on the other
hand, is a stream of binary numbers. To convert an analogue signal into a digital signal, the analogue signal
must rst be sampled, then quantized, and then encoded as a binary number. The signal is then in a form
where it can be stored (like on a compact disk). To convert a digital signal back to an analogue signal, the
binary numbers making up the signal must be translated into an analogue output voltage. The gure below
illustrates these processes.

The gure below illustrates the conventional A/D conversion process that transforms an analog input
signal x(t) into a sequence of digital codes x(n) at a sampling rate of fs = 1/T, where T denotes the sampling

interval.

This process is perfected with the use of a number of modulations. But we are going to dwell more or
the conversion by a First Order Sigma-Delta Modulation.

6.1 SAMPLING
Sampling is the rst process involved in the conversion of an analog into a digital signal. Sampling is the
measurement of a signal at discrete and regular times. Usually the sample times are uniformly spaced. To
avoid losing any information the samples have to be spaced closely enough together so that the shape of the
analog input signal is not distorted or lost. The Sampling Theorem states that to avoid loss of information,
a band limited signal must be sampled at a rate equal to or greater than twice the bandwidth of the signal.
If we are dealing with a signal containing frequency components from about zero on up to some maximum
frequency, fsig,max, then the sampling rate fsample, must be equal to or greater than twice fsig,max. fsample

fsig,max.

This minimum rate is called the Nyquist rate, named after the engineer who investigated the mathematics of the sampling process.

Many signals have high frequency components that do not contain essential

information but that can cause problems when sampling is done. The problem of aliasing occurs when the
sampling rate is lower than twice the highest frequency of the signal. It results in high frequency components
masquerading as lower frequency values and causing distortion. To avoid aliasing problems, a signal is rst
low pass ltered to remove any components greater than fsample (This lter is also called an anti-aliasing
lter). This is what is meant by band limiting a signal. Filtering is used to remove all but a limited range
of frequencies from a signal while preserving the essential information content.

6.2 QUANTIZATION NOISE

Quantization noise (or quantization error) is one limiting factor for the dynamic range of an ADC. This error
is actually the  round-o  error that occurs when an analog signal is quantized.Now let's consider how the
number of bits used to encode the signal aects the signal. Naturally the signal that emerged from the DAC
is dierent from the original signal sent into the ADC? It's blockier and would sound dierently to your
ear than the original signal. That `blockiness' is called quantization noise, and it's the inevitable result of
limiting the signal to a nite number of voltage levels in the quantization process. The more voltage levels
you allow in the system, the less quantization noise you will have and the closer the nal signal will be to the
original. You get more voltage levels by simply using more bits to encode each sample reading. Of course,
the more bits you use and the faster you sample, then the larger the total bit rate for your signal becomes,
making greater demands on your processing system and signal storage requirements. The bit rate for your
system is the product of the sample rate and the number of bits for each sample.

Integrator or Noise Shaping Filter:

The noise shaping lter or integrator of a sigma delta converter

distributes the converter quantization error or noise such that it is very low in the band of interest.

10

6.3 DECIMATION
Decimation is the act of reducing the data rate down from the oversampling rate without losing information.
The process of decimation is used in a sigma delta converter to eliminate redundant data at the output. The
sampling theorem tells us that the sample rate only needs to be 2 times the input signal bandwidth in order
to reliably reconstruct the input signal without distortion. However, the input signal was grossly oversampled
by the sigma delta modulator in order to reduce the quantization noise. Therefore, there is redundant data
that can be eliminated without introducing distortion to the conversion result. The decimation process is
shown in both the frequency and time domains in the gure below.

11

Oversampling

Oversampling is simply the act of sampling the input signal at a frequency much greater

than the Nyquist frequency (two times the input signal bandwidth). Oversampling decreases the quantization
noise in the band of interest.

MATLAB SIMULATION

This model of a sigma-delta ADC (analog to digital converter) demonstrates the use of sigma-delta modulation to turn an analog input signal into a digital output signal.

The analog input to the sigma-delta

ADC controls an oscillator that produces pulses of xed voltage and duration, but with period between
pulses being inversely proportional to the analog input. The oscillator pulses are integrated over a xed time
interval to give a digital representation of the analog input signal.

12

13

MODEL OF SIMPLE BAND PASS FILTER IN PSPICE

14