Re:Analog's answer to FPGA opens field to masses (2008)
by swamp40 on Tuesday November 11, 2014 @04:25PM
(#8592272)
I agree that we haven't yet eliminated all analog conditioning.
Your example however, doesn't really bolster your point.
Delta-Sigma modulation is a digital signal processing technique.
That particular chip is also using a digital FIR filters to reduce noise.
For example, this appnote[0] uses a Delta-Sigma converter to digitize a load cell, with the ability to "detect one sheet of copier paper dropped on a stack of 20 reams". In order to do this, it relies on an intrumentation amplifier and custom correlated-double sampling to get a measurement accurate to 200,000 counts.
And even if your input signal can be directly input to your ADC, you'll still need an analog anti-aliasing filter.
Signal conditioning is an important part of signal processing that has to happen in the analog domain.
[0] http://cds.linear.com/docs/en/application-note/an96fa.pdf