An anti-aliasing filter for 24-bit ADCs

For many ADC applications, placing a simple RC filter at the buffer input provides adequate anti-aliasing filtering. For applications requiring higher order filters, active filters are often used. The active components in such a filter must have sufficient bandwidth, fast stability, low noise, and low offset to not corrupt the signal until it reaches the ADC.

The LTC6363 is a differential op amp optimized for driving low power SAR ADCs. The LTC6363 provides 500 MHz GBW, 780 ns stable to 4 ppm, and 2.9 nV/√Hz and 100μV maximum offset voltage.

Figure 1 shows a 30kHz third-order filter using the LTC6363, which is optimized for use with the 1.5Msps/2Msps low-power SARADC LTC2380-24 and has an integrated digital filter. The LTC2380-24 averages from 1 to 65536 conversions in real time, improving signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Both inputs of this circuit can be driven differentially over a ±2.5 Vpp signal range, or one input can be grounded and the other input can be driven with signals up to ±5 Vpp.

Figure 1.30kHz third-order filter driver 24-bit ADC LTC2380-24

Figure 2 shows the frequency response of the filter and ADC together with a sampling rate of 1.5 Msps and the number of conversions (N) for the average is set to 1 and 8.

Figure 2. Frequency response of the filter and ADC together

Figure 3. is a screenshot of PScope showing the FFT, SNR, and THD for the circuit shown in Figure 1 at N = 1.

Figure 3. The PScope screenshot shows the FFT, SNR, and THD for the circuit shown in Figure 1 at N=1.

Figures 4 and 5 show the THD and SNR as a function of input frequency for the circuit shown in Figure 1 at N = 1 and 8. When the input frequency is less than a few kHz, the performance of SNR and THD is close to the typical number in the datasheet. As the input frequency increases beyond a few kHz, the THD decreases smoothly.

Figure 4. Total harmonic distortion of the circuit shown in Figure 1 as a function of input frequency

Figure 5. Signal-to-noise ratio of the circuit shown in Figure 1 as a function of input frequency

About LTC6363

The LTC6363 family includes four fully differential, low power, low noise amplifiers with optimized rail-to-rail outputs to drive the SAR ADC. The LTC6363 is a stand-alone differential amplifier that typically uses four external resistors to set its gain. The LTC6363-0.5, LTC6363-1, and LTC6363-2 have internal matching resistors to create fixed gain blocks with gains of 0.5V/V, 1V/V, and 2V/V, respectively.

Precision resistors integrated into the LTC6363-0.5, LTC6363-1, and LTC6363-2 are designed with overall system performance in mind, achieving a balance between noise and linearity, and high precision with laser-tuned factory calibration This accuracy is not only difficult to achieve with discrete device solutions, but also costly to implement. The initial gain accuracy is 45ppm (maximum) and the maximum variation over the entire temperature range is only 0.5ppm/oC. The common-mode rejection ratio, which is usually limited by discrete resistor matching, achieves an excellent 94dB (minimum), which is equivalent to 0.002% resistor matching.

One of the challenges when driving high-performance SAR ADCs is to find a suitable driver with similar power levels while maintaining the noise and linearity of the ADC. The LTC6363 series is excellent in this regard. For example, the LTC2378-20 20-bit SAR ADC consumes 21mW at 1Msps. The noise and linearity of the LTC6363 family have negligible impact on ADC performance, while consuming only 19mW, which is comparable to the power consumption of the ADC. . Now, with the LTC6363-0.5, LTC6363-1, and LTC6363-2, you get the same ADC drive performance and new precision with precision integrated resistors in the same compact MSOP8 package.