•ADCs generate a comparison voltage using a digital to analog (DAC) converter
using a process of successive approximation
•
•Essentially this process converts each bit and compares
it with the original
until all the bits are converted.
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•Because of design specifications the lower the number of
bits the higher the
inaccuracy
•
•Thus to increase accuracy it is useful (and more costly)
to collect more bits and throw the least significant bits (LSBs) away.
•
•Thus an ADC with 12 bits might only have the bottom 8
bits used
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