Improved Static Testing of A/D Converters for DC Measurements

A new static test for DC digital instruments and analog-to-digital converters is presented. The test is truly static because it uses only DC voltages with a small superimposed noise. It is much faster than the one described in IEEE standard 1057/94, since it uses a minimal number of input signals and acquired samples in a theoretically nearly optimal manner (ML estimation). Besides, contrary to the test described in IEEE Standards 1241/00, it allows off-line measurements and testing of stand-alone instruments like digital multimeters. Both simulations and experimental results are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed test method.