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ADAU1442 + AD1938 ADC Noise

SigmaDSP & SigmaStudio Nando.One Feb 20, 2015 00:00 3 replies Original on forum ↗
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Nando.One Question
Feb 20, 2015 00:00

Hi there, how are you?

I recently developed a car audio signal processor using two ADAU1701s. Now I am working on the testing jig, which among the many tests it performs, it is supposed to measure the noise and distortion. As you can see bellow, it has an ADAU1442 + AD1938 codec. Because noise figures of AD1938 are better than ADAU1701's, I assumed that it would suffice to check if the noise floor of the device under test is equal or lower certain threshold, say -85 dB for example. Audioprecision measured -93 dB SNR.

However, even with everything disconnected, the noise floor is pretty mediocre (see second image). I really don't know what could possibly be causing it. Digital and Analog rails are separated and each one has a LM317 regulator, that alone should allow for 80dB PSRR, plus LC filters prior to the regulators. Board is 4 layer, which one is a solid ground plane. Nothing is connected to the board besides USBi. Other than that, the DAC of AD1938 puts out a beautifully clean sinewave, so I suppose system is healthy. Is there any chance that the DAC is working fine but the ADC may not be working so well?

It is running at 48Khz FS at the moment, but I will increase to 192Khz later, once I develop the functions to initialize the AD1938.

Any ideas??

Thank you!

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KJBob Reply
Feb 20, 2015 00:00

Hello Fernando,

I had similar noise in a mixer design, which turned out to have several causes as described at https://ez.analog.com/message/169919#169919

Perhaps reading through this experience may help spark an idea to run additional tests and find the issue.

Best regards,

Bob

Nando.One Reply
Feb 20, 2015 00:00

Hi Bob, good to hear from you again!

About a year ago I made a small AD1938 board (toner transfer btw). I connected it to the board to bypass the original codec and use the external one. Problem solved. Maybe I overheated the thing when I was soldering, or maybe some faultly component, who knows... I will rework the board and report back here.

Nando.One Reply
Feb 21, 2015 00:00

Ok!!

So I found that the problem was that CLATCH of the CODEC was asserted when it shouldn't, So when SPI was operating (reading DSP), it was going crazy. Now I have a different problem: When reading the DSP registers with a microcontroller, click noises appear at the audio output.

I will open another thread because this new problem is unrelated to this one. Stay tuned! Don't change your radio station!