wrote:

Hello All,
I was going through an ADC tutorial and realized that they use the term
input bandwidth more frequently as one of the important factors to be
considered before choosing an ADC.

Based on my search, I found out that "the input bandwidth is something
that determines the maximum bandwidth of an input signal that can be
accurately sampled, regardless of the stated sample rate".

http://www.diamondsystems.com/slides...utorial&page=4

I am not sure why is this input bandwidth different from Fs/2. From the
above link, one of the example has Fs/4. Is it just because to increase
more precision that we use a sampling frequency 4 times the bandwidth
of the signal?

They are different because they are two completely different things.

In a successive approximation or flash ADC the signal sampling happens
over a very brief window, so aliasing happens over a very wide band.
This means(for instance) that you could sample a signal at 10.25 times
the sample rate of the ADC and have it come out at 0.25 Fs, assuming
that your sampling jitter is small enough and your signal is intact
going into the sampler at that frequency.

The input bandwidth of the ADC is just the bandwidth of the ADCs
circuitry leading up to the sampling stage. In principal it could be
just about anything. In practice SAR and flash ADC's have relatively
wide input bandwidths, while sigma-delta and slope converters have input
bandwidths closely matched to the sampling rate.

I assume for practical reasons, we oversample it but that is for more
precision (correct me) but the Nyquist criteria still holds good for
sampling the frequencies upto Fs/2. That means I can still get the
original signal. I am not sure about the accuracy though.

Theoretically the Nyquist criteria holds up to Fs/2. Practically you
need to oversample at much greater frequencies than that, or sweat blood
on your anti-alias filters.

Also, can I say that if an ADC is oversampled 4 times the Nyquist rate
(Fs = 4*BW), then is my input frequency given by Fs/4? Assume single
channel case.

You can say that your bandwidth is given by Fs/4. Your input frequency
depends on the characteristics of your input signal, which may be quite
different from the characteristics of your input filter.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks for your responses.



--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

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