What is ENOB (effective number of bits)?

ENOB (effective number of bits) in the explanations

• Real ADCs fall short due to thermal noise, distortion and clock jitter, so actual performance is compared by the effective number of bits (ENOB) calculated from measurements.

  Which is the approximate formula for the signal-to-noise ra…

• ENOB is calculated from measured SINAD (signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio) as ENOB = (SINAD − 1.76)/6.02, expressing how many bits of an ideal ADC the real one equals.

  Which metric converts the performance of a real AD converte…

Questions that mention ENOB (effective number of bits) (2)

1. Which is the approximate formula for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of an ideal N-bit AD converter, set by quantization noise? (For a full-scale sine-wave input)
2. Which metric converts the performance of a real AD converter, including noise and distortion, into the bit count of an ideal ADC?

Related terms

Jitter Thermal noise (Johnson noise) Aliasing Delta-sigma ADC DNL (differential nonlinearity) Flash ADC INL (integral nonlinearity) Missing code Noise shaping Nyquist frequency