Abstract

The initial step on designing a Delta-Sigma data converter is typically generating a noise transfer function based on a rule-of-thumb such as Lee’s famous rule for single-bit converters. As known, rules of such nature are merely suggestive and should be treated as an educated guess. This brief proposes a novel design rule based on optimizing noise transfer functions to a fixed pair of norm-based metrics. Through a vast amount of behavioral simulations, a simple rule was created and it was found quite accurate. The new rule is applicable for both one- and multi-bit converters.