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Specifying the Maximum Amplifier Noise When Driving an ADC

Rick LyonsRick Lyons June 9, 20148 comments

You can quantify how much amplifier noise is acceptable before adding gain actually hurts an ADC's output SNR. Rick Lyons presents a compact rule showing the amplifier input-referred noise power must be less than (1 - 1/α^2) times the ADC's q^2/12 quantization noise power, with Eq. (8) and a pair of figures that make it easy to pick or specify the right amplifier for a given gain α.


Specifying the Maximum Amplifier Noise When Driving an ADC

Rick LyonsRick Lyons June 9, 20148 comments

You can quantify how much amplifier noise is acceptable before adding gain actually hurts an ADC's output SNR. Rick Lyons presents a compact rule showing the amplifier input-referred noise power must be less than (1 - 1/α^2) times the ADC's q^2/12 quantization noise power, with Eq. (8) and a pair of figures that make it easy to pick or specify the right amplifier for a given gain α.