High-resolution floating-point ADC

Floating-point analog-to-digital converters (FP-ADC) are used for acquiring signals within a high dynamic range. The quantization range of FP-ADCs is several orders of magnitude higher than that of a fixed-point analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Comparing floating-point quantization with uniform quantization, it is shown that the FP-ADC is superior from a statistical point of view over the ADC, but at the price of doubling the conversion time. An improved FP-ADC that achieves a higher acquisition rate, while preserving the highest possible resolution, is presented. Simulation results illustrate the performance of the new FP-ADC.