What Is An ADC And Why 10 Bit Means 1024 Levels
Question
What is an ADC, and why does a 10-bit ADC have 1024 quantization levels?
Short Answer
ADC stands for:
Analog-to-Digital Converter
It converts an analog signal into digital form.
If an ADC uses N bits per sample, then it has:
[ 2^N ]
quantization levels.
So for 10 bits:
[ 2^{10} = 1024 ]
What An ADC Does
An ADC converts a continuous analog signal into digital data.
Conceptually this involves:
- sampling
- quantization
- encoding
Why 10 Bits Gives 1024 Levels
With 10 bits, one sample is represented by a 10-digit binary number.
That means the ADC can represent:
000000000000000000010000000010- …
1111111111
The total number of distinct binary patterns is:
[ 2^{10} = 1024 ]
So the signal is quantized into 1024 possible levels.
General Rule
8bit →2^8 = 25610bit →2^{10} = 102412bit →2^{12} = 4096
Counterpoints and Gaps
- this gives the number of quantization levels, not the analog voltage range itself
- a fuller treatment would also discuss quantization step size and quantization error