Enhancing the dynamic range of analog-to-digital converters by reducing excess noise

A technique for improving the dynamic range of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) is presented. The technique consists of summing outputs of several parallel N-bit ADCs to reduce the uncorrelated excess noise introduced by each ADC. This increases the number of effective bits of resolution and is most useful to regain bits lost after dithering to reduce spurious harmonics for spectral analysis applications. The sensitivity of this approach to uncertainties in component gain and delay is discussed.<>