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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT 1

Accurate Spectral Testing With Impure Source


and Noncoherent Sampling
Benjamin Magstadt, Yuming Zhuang, Student Member, IEEE, and Degang Chen, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract— Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are becoming the testing cost as minimal as possible in order to keep the total
increasingly more common to be involved in most systems with cost of the product at a reasonable level. One solution to this
integrated circuits. One of the difficulties being faced is to be problem of testing large SoCs is to employ built-in-self-test
able to accurately and cost-effectively test the continually higher
performance of ADCs. A part of this test is being able to assess or BIST circuits. These BIST circuits can then internally test
the dynamic linearity of the ADC through dynamic spectral the different subblocks of the system more efficiently. Analog-
testing. The standard test method for ADCs can be difficult to to-digital converters (ADCs) are a very popular device in many
implement accurately and cost-effectively due to the stringent SoCs, as many of today’s applications rely on operating in
requirements. This paper develops an algorithm that relaxes the both the digital and analog domains, and the ADC is the
requirements on the linearity of the test signal and of the need
to achieve coherent sampling. The standard test requires that necessary bridge between these two. ADCs can also cause a
the input signal linearity be about 20 dB purer than the ADC big hurdle in testing to get a good accurate test; the data length
under test along with always maintaining coherent sampling. of the required data could be very large and thus take a long
This algorithm will reduce the purity requirement by allowing time to acquire as well as perform calculations on. Therefore,
the test signal to be less pure than the ADC under test while concentrating on the ADC device is an important area.
also completely removing the need for coherent sampling. The
proposed method will be able to test a 16-b ADC with a target There are two major areas of the ADC functionality that
total harmonic distortion (THD) of around −95 dB using a test need to be tested normally. First, the static parameters such
input signal that has a THD as bad as −50 dB. A test signal as the gain, offset, integral nonlinearity, and differential non-
with this level of purity would be easy to design as well as linearity (DNL). Second, dynamic parameters such as total
be easily accessible in most systems that are being designed. harmonic distortion (THD), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and
The accuracy and robustness of these methods are demonstrated
through simulation and measurement results. spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) [1], [2]. The dynamic
parameters are especially important in high-speed applications
Index Terms— Analog-to-digital converter (ADC), impure such as communication or audio applications. This paper is
source, noncoherent sampling, spectral testing.
focused on developing different algorithms that are focused
on the dynamic testing for a single tone test.
I. I NTRODUCTION The rest of this paper is arranged as follows. Section II

T HE current rapid development of technology is also


causing a large surge in the semiconductor industry. It is
causing the industry to produce higher and higher performance
discusses the standard spectral test of the ADC and its
challenges, addressing the issue of an impure source with
noncoherent sampling. Section III introduces the proposed
technology packed into smaller areas. This is causing many algorithm that will be able to acquire accurate spectral results
new technological developments to meet the current demands. without requiring a pure input source and coherent sampling.
This complexity has also caused a larger surge of designers Section IV presents the simulation results in MATLAB, where
creating an entire system onto one single chip called a system- both the functionality and robustness of the proposed algo-
on-chip (SoC). Along with this trend causing a much larger rithm are verified. Section V validates the proposed algorithm
complexity in the design process of the system, it is also plac- by measurement results, and Section VI concludes this paper.
ing a large impact on the ability to accurately and efficiently
test the whole system. In these new large SoC products, the II. S TANDARD T EST AND C HALLENGES
test process can begin to become a significant portion of the
cost of the whole end product. This is due to the difficulty of A. Standard Test
being able to test all of the subblocks that are involved in the There are several IEEE standards [3]–[5] that describe the
entire SoC. Therefore, it becomes beneficial to be able to keep standard way in which data converters should be tested to
ensure that accurate results are obtained. In it, there are five
Manuscript received January 22, 2016; revised May 18, 2016; accepted main recommendations that are listed in order to guarantee
June 9, 2016. The Associate Editor coordinating the review process
was Dr. Niclas Bjorsell. that the spectral results of the ADC will be characterized
B. Magstadt is with Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, TX 75243 USA (e-mail: accurately.
ben.magstadt@ti.com).
Y. Zhuang and D. Chen are with the Department of Electrical and 1) Spectral purity of input signal to be 3–4 b purer than
Computer Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011 USA (e-mail: the ADC under test.
ymzhuang@iastate.edu; djchen@iastate.edu). 2) The signal should be sampled coherently.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. 3) The input signal range should be only slightly lower
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIM.2016.2584383 than the ADC input range.
0018-9456 © 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

4) The total number of sampled points should be suffi-


ciently high.
5) The sampling clock should have a relatively low level
of jitter.
The first two in the list are the target throughout this paper.
Another commonly practiced method is to make the data
length a power of 2. This is to make the fast Fourier trans-
form (FFT) more efficient.
Equation (1) demonstrates the discrete representation of an
impure sine wave that would be achieved after a sine wave
passes through the ADC. There are three components: 1) the
fundamental; 2) the harmonics; and 3) an added white noise
component w[n] Fig. 1. Output spectrum of an ADC that was tested correctly.
 
fi
x[n] = A1 cos 2π n + φ B. Challenges of Standard Test
fs
H  
h fi The previous section described how to correctly and accu-
+ Ah cos 2π n + φh + w[n] (1) rately test an ADC to get good measurements of the desired
fs
h=2 parameters. This section will show, for the first two conditions,
where fi and fs are the signal frequency and sampling fre- what will occur if the exact specifications are not met.
quency, respectively, A1 and φ are the fundamental amplitude The input signal that is going to be used to test the ADC
and initial phase, respectively, Ah and φh are the hth harmonic needs to be at 3–4 b higher level of linear purity than the ADC
amplitude and initial phase, respectively, n = 0, 1, 2 . . . m − 1, under test. This means about an extra 20 dB higher purity,
and m is the total number of sampled data. so an input signal with a THD of about 115 dB would be
On getting the data record, the FFT algorithm can be applied required in order to test a 16-b ADC with a THD of 95 dB.
to obtain the spectral results. The discrete Fourier transform This is generally difficult to achieve as either the source at
that is calculated using the FFT algorithm can be described as this performance is not available or it is costly to bring in
equipment from outside the system to be able to generate the

m−1
2π i
X[k] = x[n]e− m nk . (2) accurate test. Therefore, either extra design effort will have
n=0 to be made to create a signal generator for test or a signal
from off chip will have to be used to provide the test signal
Good spectral results will occur if the coherent sampling
needed. Neither of these choices are attractive options as they
condition can be met. This can be described as below, where
both increase the cost of the test.
J is an integer and represents the number of cycles of the
Some works have previously proposed to reduce the dif-
sinusoid that is sampled and m is the total data record length
ficult condition of the required highly pure input test signal.
fs In [6], an algorithm was described that uses filters on the input
.
fi = J (3)
m signal to get accurate results. Simulation results were shown
It can be shown that when the coherent sampling is met, the to validate the method. A similar approach is shown in [7],
FFT algorithm’s output makes it possible to easily recover where again filters are used on the input signal to achieve
the phase and amplitude of the fundamental and harmonic accurate results. Both these methods only worked on reducing
components. These can be derived from the respective bins of the input signal requirement for the ADC test.
the FFT output Coherent sampling is a stringent condition to make sure that
A1 j φ1 Ah j φh the output spectrum has accurate results. The criteria is that
X[ J ] = e , X[ J · h] = e . (4) there will be exactly an integer number of complete cycles of
2 2
the sine wave as described by the equation previously. If not,
Once the amplitudes are found, it is possible to calculate some a skirting effect will be made visible. This effect can be seen
of the common dynamic characteristics of the ADC [1], [2] in Fig. 2 even where the number of cycles is very close to an
H 2 integer value. When this happens, the amplitude for the given
h=2 A h
THD = (5) signal frequency is no longer stored in just one bin, so the
A21
equations that were given to calculate the amplitude before
A21 will no longer be valid.
SFDR =   , excluding k = J (6)
2 · max X 2K Achieving solutions for acquiring accurate spectral results
A21 without requiring coherent sampling has long been a focus
SNR = (7) of research. There are different strategies for attempting to
PNoise
resolve this problem. Windowing techniques have been widely
where PNoise is the total noise power. Fig. 1 is an example used to achieve good data from noncoherently sampled data as
of the output spectrum where the ADC was tested accurately seen in [8]–[12]. However, this can lead to inaccurate results
based on all of the criteria previously mentioned. depending on the resolution and type of windows being used
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MAGSTADT et al.: ACCURATE SPECTRAL TESTING WITH IMPURE SOURCE AND NONCOHERENT SAMPLING 3

of the ADC and will result in the wrong characterization


x(t) = A1 cos(ωt) + A2 cos(2ωt) + A3 cos(3ωt) (11)
  2 2 2

y(t) = α2 · A1 + A2 + A3 /2 + α3
 
· 3 A21 A2 /4 + 3 A1 A2 A3 /2
⎡ ⎤
α1 A1 + α2 (A1 A2 + A2 A3 )
+ ⎣ + α3 3 A31 /4 + 3 A21 A3 /4 + 3 A1 A22 /2 ⎦ cos(ωt)
+ 3 A1 A23 /2 + 3 A22 A3 /4
⎡   ⎤
α1 A2 + α2 A21 /2 + A1 A3
+ ⎣ + α3 3 A21 A2 /2 + 3 A1 A2 A3 /2 ⎦ cos(2ωt)
+ 3 A32 /4 + 3 A2 A23 /2
⎡ ⎤
α1 A3 + α2 A1 A2
Fig. 2. Sinusoid wave that is sampled noncoherently where J = 369.01.
+ ⎣ + α3 A31 /4 + 3 A21 A3 /2 + 3 A1 A22 /4 ⎦
+ 3 A22 A3 /2 + 3 A33 /4
on the specific output data. Four-parameter sine wave fitting
× cos(3ωt) + · · · . (12)
has also been used as seen in [13]–[16]. The time it takes
to perform these methods can become a concern, however, The first thing that can be realized is that the dc term should
when large data sets are used. Another method that has been not have any effect on our measurement as it should be a very
proposed is the fundamental identification and replacement small change as well as the dc component does not have an
presented in [17]–[22]. However, all these methods are only effect on any of our parameters. The fundamental also should
for fixing the noncoherent sampling issue. not have a large effect in respect to its original value. The
As none of the above described research has dealt with first harmonic is when there could be an effect. The term
a situation involving a nonpure input signal that is sampled α1 A2 is directly passed from the input signal. This portion
noncoherently, there is currently no good solution for the will be taken care of in the algorithm of this section. The
detailed problem. The method proposed in the following (α2 A21 /2) term is the nonlinear term that is generated by the
section will be able to reduce the requirement of the input fundamental from the ADC. This is the term that is desired to
signal purity, while also completely removing the need for characterize the ADC. The other terms, however, will cause
coherent sampling. An added benefit of this proposed method error in the measurement. On examining these terms, it should
is that the nonpure signal generator can also be characterized become evident that they should not have a large effect on the
at the same time as the ADC under test is being measured. measurement as long as the original harmonics are sufficiently
smaller than the fundamental amplitude. This is due to all
other terms having the amplitudes of the harmonics included
C. Impure Source Modeling in them. A similar analysis can be done on the other harmonic
To look at the effect of an impure source into the ADC, terms.
it is possible to look at the effects of the coefficients of the
fundamental and harmonics. In the first case, a pure signal III. P ROPOSED A LGORITHM
will be modeled in (8) to go through a third-order nonlinear The proposed algorithm in this section will be able to
system model to represent the ADC as seen in (9). From this, alleviate the impure signal problem that is discussed in the
it is possible to derive the final signal which will now have previous section. It will also eliminate the need to achieve
accumulated two harmonics coherent sampling. The test setup is shown in Fig. 3.

x(t) = A1 cos(ωt) (8) A. Algorithm Flow


2
y(t) = α1 · x(t) + α2 · x (t) + α3 · x (t) 3
(9) The method that the proposed algorithm uses can be seen
  in Fig. 4. As shown, an impure source is passed through two
y(t) = α1 A21 /2 + α1 A1 + 3α3 A31 /4 cos(ωt)
separate filters. These two output signals will then be sampled
+ α2 A21 /2 · cos(2ωt) + α3 A31 /4 · cos(3ωt). (10) by the same ADC subsequently. After the ADC has finished
sampling the input signal, the output data from each run will
However, if the input signal is impure then a different set be passed into the proposed algorithm.
of equations will happen. This example will model the input The above case will only work when the signal is coherently
signal as a fundamental with two harmonics as well as sampled. However, if the signal is not exactly coherently
in (11) and (12). When applying the same nonlinear model sampled, then as previously discussed in Section I, the results
of the ADC as before, the new y(t) seen below will occur. of taking the FFT of the output data will result in errors
Along with the y(t) that is shown below, there will also be in the output spectrum. Therefore, to correct this problem,
some higher harmonics that are generated that are not exactly an additional block needs to be added to the algorithm
calculated for the below example. As it is shown, the final flow as shown in Fig. 5. As shown, there is only one
result is now much different for the first four terms as well. more addition to the algorithm. That is, there needs to be a
This will then cause error when looking at the output spectrum coherency fix applied to both the digital outputs of the ADC
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4 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

Fig. 3. Test setup diagram of the proposed method.

Fig. 4. Algorithm flow with coherent sampling.

Fig. 5. Algorithm flow without coherent sampling.

before they enter the algorithm to ensure accurate spectral


results. Because the combined nonlinearities at the ADC
output spectrum could be large, which consist of both source
and ADC nonlinearities, the Fundamental identification and
Fig. 6. Plots showing the transfer function of two different simple filters.
replacement method [22] cannot complete resolve the non-
coherency issue in both the fundamental and harmonics. The
method in [23] is used for noncoherent correction, whose the filters, passive components will be used. The values of
details are not discussed here. these devices will most likely be varied from the specification
by possibly over 5%. This can then make the amplitudes
not matched very accurately. To alleviate the error caused by
B. Filter Requirement and Adjustment
this filter uncertainty, several methods can be implemented.
In order for the proposed algorithm to work properly, the If simple passive components are being used, then banks of
filters need to satisfy several requirements. devices can be tuned using digital components. An example
1) Both the signals coming out of the two different filters would be having a binary weighted capacitor bank that can
need to have approximately the same amplitude. be adjusted using a digital signal. Since any level of nonco-
2) Filter transfer curve at the fundamental and harmonics herency is allowed, a different approach would be to change
of interest need to be known. the frequency of the input signal to match the amplitude
3) Harmonics output of both the filters need to be signifi- response of the two filters. ADC under test can be used
cantly different, and at least one of them should not be as a measurement device for the matching. DC offset can
significantly attenuated. be adjusted through offset adjustment of the buffer. With
4) Filters need to have good linearity. these choices, the frequency could just be adjusted until the
In the following, we will discuss why these requirements are RC filter has the same amplitude response as the constant
needed and how to meet the requirements. A simple example RR filter, with only a few ADC least significant bits (LSBs)
of filter choices can be seen in Fig. 6, as a simple RC low-pass difference in amplitude.
filter and then a simple resistor attenuator filter. They are used The next problem, after tuning the filters, is being able to
to illustrate the filter requirements. know the approximate transfer curve of the two filters. If the
One of the keys to the success of this algorithm is to have filters are just one-pole systems as in a standard low-pass
both the sets of signals coming out of the two filters to have RC filter, then a simple two-point characterization can be used.
approximately the same amplitude. DC offsets are needed This would be done by measuring the filter at a dc input
to match as well, so the full range of the two filter output and at a higher frequency. Using the impure signal generator
signals are approximately the same. This will ensure that the and ADC under test, an accurate enough characterization of
nonlinearities added to the output from the ADC are going the filters can be calculated in order to successfully run the
to be the same on both the signals. However, in designing algorithm. More complicated filters past a one-pole system can
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MAGSTADT et al.: ACCURATE SPECTRAL TESTING WITH IMPURE SOURCE AND NONCOHERENT SAMPLING 5

be used; it may just take extra work to be able to achieve a of the second filter. The signals after the two filters are
relatively good estimate of the transfer curve of the filter. given as
In order for the algorithm to realize the separation of har-
VF 1 (t) = |D1 H1 ( j ωo )|e j ωo nTS e j (φ1+ψ1 )
monics from the input source and harmonics from the ADC,
the output harmonics of the filters need to be significantly  H
+ |Dk H1 ( j kωo )|e j kωo nTS e j (φk +ψk ) + w1 (t)
different. This can also be achieved with the simple example
k=2
of RR and RC filter. The corner frequency of the RC filter (15)
is designed to be the input frequency, and both RR and RC j ωo nTS j (φ1 +δ1 +ϕ1 )
are designed to have the same output fundamental amplitudes. VF 2 (t) = |D1 H2 ( j ωo )|e e
They are easy to implement, and they have different responses  H

at harmonics of interest. In addition, if the filter losses are + |Dk H2 ( j kωo )|e j kωo nTS e j (φk +kδ1 +ϕk ) + w2 (t).
k=2
too large, the information about the source harmonics will be
(16)
lost. This can be solved by a proper filter design. √ For the
RR attenuator, the attenuation ratio is fixed to 2 for both After the filters, the signals will pass through the ADC. This
the fundamental and harmonics; for the RC filter, the losses at will then add to the extra nonlinearities from the ADC. The
harmonics of interest are not too large as it is a first order low- amplitudes of these added nonlinearities are given by the
pass filter with fundamental frequency at its corner frequency; variable C and the phase by γ . The initial phase of the added
and for the kth harmonic amplitude, they follow the attenuation nonlinearities will be directly related to the fundamental’s
of (1 + k 2 )1/2 . This will ensure enough information at the phase
harmonics of interest for the algorithm to estimate the source Vout1 [n] = |D1 H1( j ωo )|e j ωo nTS e j (φ1+ψ1 ) + w1 [n]
harmonics.
 H
The last requirement is that the components used in the filter + |Dk H1( j kωo )|e j kωo nTS e j (φk +ψk )
cannot add any extra nonlinearities to the signal. If the two k=2
filters add different nonlinearities to the input signal that is at

H
a level relative to the ADC’s nonlinearities, then the proposed + |Ck |e j kωo nTS e j (kφ1 +kψ1 +γk ) (17)
algorithm will not be able to produce accurate results, as the k=2
algorithm cannot take this into account.
Vout2 [n] = |D1 H2( j ωo )|e j ωo nTS e j (φ1 +δ1 +ϕ1 ) + w2 [n]
 H
C. Signal Derivation + |Dk H2( j kωo )|e j kωo nTS e j (φk +kδ1 +ϕk )
Before deriving the individual nonlinearities of the ADC and k=2
signal generator, it is necessary to derive what the two signals H
will look like when they are out of the sampled ADC. For these + |Ck |e j kωo nTS e j (kφ1 +kδ1 +kϕ1 +γk ) . (18)
derivations, all the signals are assumed either to be coherent or k=2
corrected by the noncoherent correction algorithm. The signal The actual measurement output out of the ADC can be
starts with two different signals being originally generated comprised of a fundamental and a harmonics, given by (19)
by an impure source. Equations (13) and (14) represent the and (20). The two different outputs can be represented by
two signals directly out of this impure signal generator. The the two functions below with the amplitudes and phases.
variable D represents the amplitude of the fundamental and These values can be accurately acquired given that either
harmonics out of the impure source and the variable φ rep- the original signal was coherently sampled, or the nonco-
resents the phase of these different components. The variable herent fix algorithm was applied on the output codes of
δ1 represents the phase difference of the fundamental between the ADC
the two different signal passes and w is additive noise of the 
H
signal. This is necessary as it may not be possible to start both Vout1 [n] = |M1 |e j ωo nTS e j α1 + |Mk |e j kωo nTS e j αk + W1 [n]
the signal passes at exactly the same time without any added k=2
difficulty (19)

H 
H

x 1 (t) = |D1 |e j ωo nTS e j φ1 + |Dk |e j kωo nTS e j φk + w1 (t) Vout2 [n] = |N1 |e j ωo nTS e jβ1 + |Nk |e j kωo nTS e jβk + W2 [n].
k=2 k=2
(13) (20)
x 2 (t) = |D1 |e j ωo nTS e j (φ1 +δ1 ) D. Nonlinear Algorithm Derivation
 H
Now that the signals coming out of the ADC are derived and
+ |Dk |e j kωo nTS e j (φk +kδ1 ) + w2 (t). (14)
known, it is possible to begin the derivation of the nonlinear
k=2
algorithm. The first step is to be able to calculate the initial
After the signals are generated, then they will each separately angles. This can be accomplished using (21) and (22)
pass through their respective filters. This will apply the ampli-
tude and phase response of the filters to both the signals. ψ is φ1 = α1 − ψ1 (21)
the phase response of the first filter and ϕ is the phase response δ 1 = β 1 − φ1 − ϕ 1 . (22)
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6 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

After the calculations, an analysis of the previously derived


equation, it is desired to cancel out the harmonics caused by
the signal generator in order to isolate the harmonics caused
by the ADC. To accomplish this, the amplitude ratio of the
filters as well as a phaseshift needs to be applied to the second
signal/output. Then by subtracting the second signal/output
from the first signal/output, (23) and (24) can be derived, while
only looking at the harmonics. These two different equations
can then be set equivalent to each other
|H1( j kωo )| j (ψk −kδ1 −ϕk )
|Mk |e j kωo nTS e j αk −|Nk |e j kωo nTS e jβk e
|H2 ( j kωo )|
= |Ck |e j kωo nTS e j (kφ1 +kψ1 +γk )
|H1( j kωo )| j (ψk −kδ1 −ϕk )
−|Ck |e j kωo nTS e j (kφ1 +kδ1 +kϕ1 +γk ) e .
|H2( j kωo )| Fig. 7. Spectrum of the raw data out of the ADC versus the spectrum of
(23) the ADC using the standard test.

Then by solving for the harmonic component due to the


ADC, (24) can be achieved
|Ck |e j γk
|Mk |e j αk − |Nk |e jβk |H1 ( j kωo )| j (ψk −kδ1 −ϕk )
|H2 ( j kωo )| e
= .
e j (kφ1 +kψ1 ) − e j (kφ1 +kδ1 +kϕ1 ) |H1 ( j kωo )| j (ψk −kδ1 −ϕk )
|H2 ( j kωo )| e
(24)
After the ADC’s nonlinearities have been solved, it is then
back to solve for the signal generator’s nonlinearities. This can
be done in a similar fashion as when solving for the ADC’s
nonlinearities. This time, however, the ADC’s nonlinearities
will need to be cancelled out, by providing a phaseshift to the
second signal/output and then again setting it equal to each
other as seen in (25).
Fig. 8. Spectrum of the ADC using proposed method versus the spectrum
Then by rearranging the above equation, the nonlinearities of the ADC using the standard test.
of the signal generator can be calculated with (26)
|Mk |e j kωo nTS e j αk − |Nk |e j kωo nTS e jβk e j (kψ1 −kδ1 −kϕ1 ) in (13) and (14) and filtered through the two different filters.
j kωo nTS j (φk +ψk ) The RR attenuator consists of two 20 k resistors; the RC
= |Dk H1( j kωo )|e e
filter uses the same 20-k resistor and a 5-nF capacitor. The
− |Dk H2 ( j kωo )|e j kωo nTS e j (φk +kδ1 +ϕk ) e j (kφ1 −kδ1 −kϕ1 ) same ADC digitizes both the signals. Then the output signals
(25) are passed into the proposed algorithm. The results can then
j φk
|Dk |e be compared between the two different methods to see the
|Mk |e j αk − |Nk |e jβk e j (kψ1 −kδ1 −kϕ1 ) resulting accuracy. Figs. 7 and 8 show an example of one
= . simulation run. Fig. 7 shows one of the raw output data’s
|H1( j kωo )|e j ψk − |H2( j kωo )|e j (kδ1 +ϕk ) e j (kψ1 −kδ1 −kϕ1 )
(26) spectra as well as the ADC spectrum from using the standard
test method. As it is shown, the raw data is skirting due to
After both the nonlinearities have been achieved, all of the the noncoherent sampling. Fig. 8 shows the comparison of the
parameters of the system have been successfully solved. This standard test method with the calculated output spectrum that
would then allow a reconstruction of the spectra of the ADC is generated from the nonpure input source that is sampled
and signal generator. noncoherently. The two different spectra now line up together
accurately. The different harmonic components as well as the
IV. S IMULATION R ESULTS fundamental component are estimated accurately.
In this section, simulations results are given to verify the A summary of the two simulations runs can be seen in
accuracy of the algorithm proposed in this paper. Tables I–IV. The first run is summarized in Tables I and II and
the second run is in Tables III and IV. As it is shown, accurate
A. Functionality results can be obtained for both the ADC (Tables I and III)
The functionality simulation was done by first testing a and the signal generator (Tables II and IV) using the proposed
generated ADC model with a pure input source that is sampled algorithm for different purities of the signal generator modeled
coherently in order to comply with the standard test methods. by (13) and (14). The estimated THD and SFDR are very close
Then an impure signal is generated using the model described to those obtained by the standard method. The first run has
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MAGSTADT et al.: ACCURATE SPECTRAL TESTING WITH IMPURE SOURCE AND NONCOHERENT SAMPLING 7

TABLE I
S PECTRAL S PECIFICATIONS OF ADC U NDER T EST (F IRST RUN )

TABLE II
S PECTRAL S PECIFICATIONS OF S IGNAL G ENERATOR (F IRST RUN )

Fig. 9. Plot showing the harmonic power estimation error versus the signal
generator’s THD.
TABLE III
S PECTRAL S PECIFICATIONS OF ADC U NDER T EST (S ECOND RUN ) noise power. For example, if the number of harmonics used
to calculate THD is 14, in spectrum, a total of 14 har-
monic bins are used. With a total noise power of PNoise , the
noise power in these 14 bins in the decibel scale should be
10 log(PNoise × (14/M)). The same ADC is used as in the
previous examples, so the THD is at the −94 dB level. The
parameter that will be swept then is the THD of the signal
TABLE IV generator source. This is done by randomly generating differ-
S PECTRAL S PECIFICATIONS OF S IGNAL G ENERATOR (S ECOND RUN ) ent signals with different levels of purity, whose harmonics
amplitudes are randomly generated within a given range, and
the phases are randomly generated from 0 to 2π. There are
a total of 10 000 randomly generated simulations. The results
of this can be seen in Fig. 9. Accurate results are achieved
until the THD of the signal generator reaches levels that are
worse than the −50 dB level. This shows that the algorithm is
a signal generator that is about 10 dB worse than the ADC robust to the signal generator’s purity as bad as the −50 dB
under test. The second run still has accurate results, even with level for THD. This level of purity in a test signal will be easy
a signal generator whose purity is 45 dB worse than the ADC to achieve.
under test.
The robustness of the proposed algorithm is also to be C. Robustness: Noise
verified. There are several parameters that could affect the The amount of noise in a system can directly affect the
performance of the algorithm: input signal purity level, noise, accuracy of different measurements. This is especially true
and level of coherency. If the filter is not approximately for high-precision ADCs. When the noise level becomes too
known, this could also cause some error. However, since high, the noise power can influence the estimation of the
passive components will normally have a large variation in the harmonics’ power. This will lead to incorrect characterization
value, it is better to use the filter characterization proposed in of the spectral performances of the ADC. Therefore, it is
this section in order to have good estimation, even if large important to see how robust a method is to different levels of
component variation does exist in the filter. noise. In this discussion, the noise level should be around the
same magnitude as the value of the ADC’s LSB. A simulation
B. Robustness: Input Signal Purity of the harmonic power estimation can be seen in Fig. 10.
The first characteristic that will be used in order to test In these simulations, the same ADC with a THD of −94 dB
the robustness of the proposed algorithm is the purity level was used with a sampled data set size of 215 . Therefore,
of the input signal. Harmonics power estimation is used to to achieve high accuracy results, it can be shown that only
evaluate the robustness of the proposed method. The accuracy up to around a few LSBs of noise should be present in
of estimation is quantified by the difference between the the measurement system in order to achieve highly accurate
estimated total harmonics harmonic power hdest and the true results. With more noise the results will still be fairly accurate,
total harmonics harmonic power hd, obtained by the standard but at 10 LSBs of noise the error starts to approach the same
method: 10 log(hdest − hd). In the standard measurement, magnitude as the measurement itself. These low levels of noise
the tested distortion power will unavoidably include some to maintain the accuracy is achievable in realistic test setups.
noise power. Then we can compare the difference between In addition, the red curve represents the noise power included
the proposed and the standard distortion powers against this in the same number of bins, which serves as a reference.
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8 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

Fig. 10. Plot showing the harmonic power estimation error versus the added
noise power in LSBs.

Fig. 12. Designed test PCB.

V. M EASUREMENT R ESULTS
To further validate the proposed algorithm, it was necessary
to produce measurement results to achieve similar accurate
results. Signal generators, such as DAC7631, DAC8831, Audio
Precision AP2700, and ADCs, such as ADS8321, ADS9110,
LTC2389, were also used in the measurement to verify the
proposed method. As all the measurements look similar, only
one set of measurement result is presented.
A printed circuit board (PCB) test board was designed
and created to collect the data required in order to verify the
algorithm with the measurement results. The created PCB
Fig. 11. Plot showing the harmonic power estimation error versus the test board can be seen in Fig. 12. The test board includes a
value of δ. 16-b Successive approximation register ADC which will be
the ADC under test. For the signal generator, a DAC will be
It can be seen that the results are at the same level of used in order to generate an impure sine wave. This will then
the reference line, which indicates that the accuracy of the be filtered by two different filters: 1) RR attenuator with two
proposed method is only limited by the noise. 20-k resistors and 2) RC filter with a 20-k resistor and a
5-nF capacitor. For this board two low-pass filters were used.
D. Robustness: Coherency They each have a different dc gain and corner frequency, so
that the requirement of having the same amplitude response at
One of the goals of this algorithm was to completely remove
the testing frequency can still be achieved. On this test board,
the coherent sampling condition from the test setup. Coherent
the output of the DAC is first passed through an inverting
sampling is achieved by having an exact integer number of
operational amplifier configuration, so that it will be able to
cycles of the sine wave. This integer is given by Jint, and the
drive the filters easily. Then after the filters, another inverting
total number of cycles is given by J . The difference between
operational amplifier configuration is used to drive the signal
these two values is then given by δ. This relationship can be
into the ADC to be digitized.
seen as
There are different parts of this board that need to be
J = Jint + δ. (27) emphasized. The first is that the filter portion of the test
board should not add any additional nonlinearities. To accom-
The value of δ has a major effect on the output spectrum. If the modate this, high-performance ceramic NP0 capacitors and
value is close to zero, or close to coherent, there will be less high-performance thin film resistors are used for the passive
of a skirting effect than if this value is farther away from zero. components in the filters. The switches that are used are also
Therefore, it is good to ensure that this value does not have important as they could also generate other nonlinearities.
a large effect on the measurement results to ensure that the Therefore, high-performance analog relays are used to switch
coherent sampling condition is in fact completely removed. between the filters and the testing signals. High-linearity
The results of varying this value can be seen in Fig. 11, where op amps are selected to serve as the buffer/driver, whose
the harmonic power estimation error is constant across all δ, nonlinearity is negligible compared with the nonlinearity of
hence, the coherent sampling condition is in fact removed. the source and that of the ADC under test. For verification
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MAGSTADT et al.: ACCURATE SPECTRAL TESTING WITH IMPURE SOURCE AND NONCOHERENT SAMPLING 9

the proposed final spectrum is due to the low-pass filters that


are used to filter the two different signals. The larger spurs at
the lower frequencies are due to the 60 Hz wall power supply
that makes it through the power supplies. The high noise level
of the board will be corrected in future revisions of the board
to be able to get a lower noise floor and better results. To get
accurate results with this board, a larger set of data needed to
be analyzed in order to still be able to achieve accurate results.

VI. C ONCLUSION
A new accurate spectral testing of an ADC while using
an impure source and noncoherent sampling was proposed.
This method is able to separate the nonlinearities of the
Fig. 13. Two initial raw signals that were captured by the ADC. signal generator from the nonlinearities of the ADC by use
of two different filters along with several steps of efficient
computations on the output data. Not only can this algorithm
accurately estimate the ADC spectral characteristics, but it can
also characterize the signal generator spectral characteristics.
This algorithm was verified using different simulations. It was
also tested to ensure that the algorithm was robust across
different parameters such as impure source level, noise, and
noncoherency. The simulations showed that a signal source
that had a purity level of −50 dB of THD was able to
accurately test a 16-b ADC with a THD of −94 dB while being
sampled noncoherently. Finally, a PCB test board was designed
and tested to further verify the accuracy of the algorithm.

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[15] K. F. Chen, “Estimating parameters of a sine wave by separable Yuming Zhuang (S’13) received the B.Sc. degree
nonlinear least squares fitting,” IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 59, in microelectronics from Xi’an Jiaotong University,
no. 12, pp. 3214–3217, Dec. 2010. Xi’an, China, in 2012. He is currently pursuing
[16] G. Simon, R. Pintelon, L. Sujbert, and J. Schoukens, “An efficient the Ph.D. degree with the Department of Electrical
nonlinear least square multisine fitting algorithm,” IEEE Trans. Instrum. and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University,
Meas., vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 750–755, Aug. 2002. Ames, IA, USA.
[17] Z. Yu, D. Chen, and R. Geiger, “A computationally efficient method for He was an Analog Design Coop with Skyworks
accurate spectral testing without requiring coherent sampling,” in Proc. Solutions Inc., Cedar Rapids, IA, USA, in 2015,
ITC, Oct. 2004, pp. 1398–1407. where he focused on CMOS power amplifier con-
[18] S. Sudani, D. Chen, and R. Geiger, “A 2-FFT method for on-chip troller and SOI antenna switch controller design.
spectral testing without requiring coherency,” in Proc. IEEE Instrum. Since 2016, he has been with Analog Devices Inc.,
Meas. Technol. Conf., May 2011, pp. 1–6. Raleigh, NC, USA, as an IC Design Coop, where he has been involved in
[19] M. Wu, D. Chen, and G. Chen, “New spectral leakage-removing method programmable RF to bit transceiver design. His current research interests
for spectral testing of approximate sinusoidal signals,” IEEE Trans. include mixed signal IC design and low-cost precision testing of data
Instrum. Meas., vol. 61, no. 5, pp. 1296–1306, May 2012. converters.
[20] F. Xu, “Algorithm to remove spectral leakage, close-in noise, and
its application to converter test,” in Proc. IEEE IMTC, Apr. 2006,
pp. 1038–1042.
[21] S. Sudani, M. Wu, and D. Chen, “A novel robust and accurate spectral
testing method for non-coherent sampling,” in Proc. ITC, Sep. 2011, Degang Chen (F’16) received the B.S. degree
pp. 1–10. in instrumentation and automation from Tsinghua
[22] S. K. Sudani and D. Chen, “FIRE: A fundamental identification University, Beijing, China, in 1984, and the Ph.D.
and replacement method for accurate spectral test without requiring degree in electrical and computer engineering from
coherency,” IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 62, no. 11, pp. 3015–3025, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa
Nov. 2013. Barbara, CA, USA, in 1992.
[23] Y. Zhuang and D. Chen, “Accurate spectral testing with non-coherent He was the John R. Pierce Instructor of Elec-
sampling for large distortion to noise ratios,” in Proc. IEEE 34th VLSI trical Engineering with the California Institute of
Test Symp. (VTS), Apr. 2016, pp. 1–6. Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA, in 1992. Since
then, he has been with Iowa State University, Ames,
IA, USA, where he is currently a Professor and
the Jerry Junkins Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He was a
Faculty Fellow with Boeing, Chicago, IL, USA, in 1999, Maxim Integrated,
San Jose, CA, USA, in 2001, and Texas Instruments (TI), Dallas,
TX, USA, in 2011, 2012, and 2014. Within the last year, he has
Benjamin Magstadt received the B.S. and delivered technical seminars with Carnegie Mellon University, Pitts-
M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Iowa burgh, PA, USA, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA, South
State University, Ames, IA, USA, in 2013 and 2014, Methodist University, Dallas, the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,
respectively. MN, USA, the University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, Broadcom, CA,
He was a Product Engineering Intern with the USA, Cypress Semiconductor, WA/MN, USA, GlobalFoundries, VT, USA,
Wireless Group, Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, TX, IBM Watson, NY, USA, Infineon, Germany, Intel, CA/OR, USA, NXP, TX,
USA, in 2011. In 2012, he was an RF Design USA, TI Dallas/India/Santa Clara, and Xilinx, CA, USA. He has authored
Engineering Intern with Boeing, Chicago, IL, USA. over 230 refereed journal and conference publications. His current research
In 2013, he was a Design Engineering Intern with interests include analog and mixed-signal integrated circuit design and testing,
the Low Power Wireless Group, Texas Instruments, integrated circuit sensor design, and high-accuracy test without requiring high-
where he held a full-time position in 2014. His accuracy instrumentation.
current research interests include analog and mixed signal design and low-cost Dr. Chen received 13 best paper awards and other honors, including the
high-accuracy testing of data converters. IEEE Ned Kornfield Best Paper Award in 2013 and 2014.

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