PowerWise® Design University

Overview: Prior to 1998, all suppliers of evaluation boards for ADCs (Analog-to-Digital Converters) provided boards that were intended for data capture with the aid of a logic analyzer. In order to evaluate that data, it was necessary to use third party solutions, or to get the data into a computer and write your own software to analyze it. In early 1998, National Semiconductor introduced the WaveVision data capture and analysis system to facilitate and reduce the cost of ADC evaluation. Now we have introduced a better WaveVision system for ADC evaluation.

This seminar will discuss the WaveVision system and what it can do for the user and discuss some common problems when performing an FFT and evaluating the results, as well as addressing apparent performance issues when doing those evaluations. A brief look at some of our ADCs is also provided.

Length: 60 minutes

Published Date: September 2005

Topics covered in this online seminar include:

• Previous Evaluation Methods
• The Need for Something Different
• National Semiconductor's Response
  • WaveVision3
  • WaveVison4
• Sampling Inconsistency
• Windowing
• Getting Consistent Dynamic Performance
• Garbage In – Garbage Out
  • ADC Input Filtering Needed for Evaluation