1 Introduction

Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) modules have a discrete number of bits available to digitize an analog signal, or resolution. An ideal ADC faithfully reproduces the digitized signal to within the specified resolution. However, in the real world, various electrical imperfections and noise factors contribute to reduce the realized signal resolution below the specified value. The realized signal resolution when these imperfections are considered is referred to as the effective number of bits, or ENOB.

ADC signal oversampling is a technique that can overcome these inherent imperfections, and achieve a higher ENOB than is nominally possible at the baseline for the device. This application report discusses the purpose behind oversampling, and provides the following details of an oversampling example: the theory, the hardware and software setup, and the measured results. The example provided in this application note uses a TMDSCNCD28P65X device for Software oversampling and Hardware oversampling, with a 12-bit ADC.