Improved dynamic linearity in multi-level Sigma - Delta converters by spectral dispersion of D/A distortion products

A hardware efficient scheme for realising multi-level Sigma - Delta converters with high static and dynamic linearity has been presented. Distortion products due to D/A nonlinearity are dispersed by pseudorandom error assignment, and can be shifted away from the signal baseband so that forward path quantisation noise shaping is not compromised. The spectral dispersion technique is well suited to monolithic implementation in either MOS or bipolar circuitry, with no requirement for trimming. >