Influence of test signal phase noise on high-resolution ADC testing

The testing of high-resolution ADCs based on the majority of standardized methods requires pure sine-wave test signal. The reason of the requirement for signal´s purity is that measured ADC parameters are potentially influenced by test signal imperfections such as distortion and wideband noise but also its short term frequency changes (phase noise). The influence of signal distortion and noise has already been the subject of many contributions; an analysis of phase noise, its effect on test results and possibilities of its suppression or correction are the subject of this paper. The validity of phase noise analysis and of proposed methods is also demonstrated on experimental measurements.