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Chapter 3     Hardware Overview
 National Instruments Corporation
3-11
AT-MIO/AI E Series User Manual
Dither
When you enable dither, you add approximately 0.5 LSB rms of white 
Gaussian noise to the signal to be converted by the ADC.  This addition 
is useful for applications involving averaging to increase the resolution 
of your AT E Series board, as in calibration or spectral analysis.  In 
such applications, noise modulation is decreased and differential 
linearity is improved by the addition of the dither.  When taking DC 
measurements, such as when checking the board calibration, you should 
enable dither and average about 1,000 points to take a single reading.  
This process removes the effects of quantization and reduces 
measurement noise, resulting in improved resolution.  For high-speed 
applications not involving averaging or spectral analysis, you may want 
to disable the dither to reduce noise.  You enable and disable the dither 
circuitry through software.  
Figure 3-7 illustrates the effect of dither on signal acquisition.  
Figure  3-7a shows a small (
±
4 LSB) sine wave acquired with dither off.  
The quantization of the ADC is clearly visible.  Figure  3-7b shows what 
happens when 50 such acquisitions are averaged together; quantization 
is still plainly visible.  In Figure 3-7c, the sine wave is acquired with 
dither on.  There is a considerable amount of noise visible.  But 
averaging about 50 such acquisitions, as shown in Figure 3-7d, 
eliminates both the added noise and the effects of quantization.  Dither 
has the effect of forcing quantization noise to become a zero-mean 
random variable rather than a deterministic function of the input signal.