Simulation challenges in high-resolution $\Delta\Sigma$ ADCs: The experimental case study of CERN DS-22

The intrinsic switching nature of Delta-Sigma ($\Delta\Sigma$) Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) makes challenging to achieve accurate and effective simulations. In this paper, several simulation models and methods are proposed and compared with actual measurements to demonstrate their accuracy. As an experimental case study, an upgraded design of the DS-22, presently in operation at CERN to regulate the output current of the main power converters of the world largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is presented. LHC upcoming upgrade, named High-Luminosity LHC, foresees a performance enhancement of the power converters and, in turn, its regulation capabilities. A strategy is to upgrade the DS-22 design by means of a reliable simulation model. In particular, a noise floor of about $186 nV/ \sqrt{Hz}$ for the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the quantization noise is achieved showing a good agreement with the measurements.