Nonlinearity of a data-acquisition system with interleaving/multiplexing

The study of differential nonlinearities (DNL) and integral nonlinearities (INL) of a high-speed data acquisition system using interleaving/multiplexing yields a theoretical expression for both errors, showing that they are smaller than the DNL and INL errors for each analog-to-digital converter (ADC) channel. Both experimental and computer-simulated data reveal very good agreement with the theoretical results. It is also shown that for this type of interleaved acquisition system, that has a time-dependent transfer characteristic, the effective number of bits cannot be evaluated via histogram testing.