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I have valuable data coming in from an accelerometer. So this data needs to be sampled to at least a 16-bit resolution.
Considering the sampling rate that I require, which is definitely less than 250khz, I guess this can be better than LTC1470.
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Ok, so you have two important pieces of information here; you require 16-bits of dynamic range over a bandwidth of less than 125kHz (Nyquist bandwidth for sampling at 250kHz).
If the signal-to-noise (SNR) of the signal you are sampling is dominated by quantization noise, then you can
oversample the signal, then digitally filter and decimate the signal. For every oversampling factor of 4, you gain about 1-bit in SNR, so to achieve 2-bits of SNR you need to oversample by 16x, i.e., 16 x 250kHz = 4MHz.
Don't the Terasic ADC boards operate at close to 100MHz?
I think you should try to look for an existing ADC board that can meet your requirements before trying to attempt to build your own.
For example, what does the signal you want actually look like? Go and use an oscilloscope or an ADC board and capture a few MB of data, then Fourier transform that data to look at its spectral response. How much dynamic range do you really have, is it 16-bits?
Cheers,
Dave
Honored Contributor
