Analog and Digital Gain in Microphone Preamplifier Design

Fink D, Bortoni R. Analog and Digital Gain in Microphone Preamplifier Design. In: AES Convention 153. Audio Engineering Society; 2022. Paper 16. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=21896

@inproceedings{Fink2022_21896,
  author = {Fink, Dennis and Bortoni, Rosalfonso},
  title = {{Analog and Digital Gain in Microphone Preamplifier Design}},
  booktitle = {AES Convention 153},
  note = {Paper 16},
  year = {2022},
  month = oct,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=21896}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Analog and Digital Gain in Microphone Preamplifier Design
AU  - Fink, Dennis
AU  - Bortoni, Rosalfonso
T2  - AES Convention 153
M1  - Paper 16
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/10/06
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=21896
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - This paper examines the overall system noise performance of a microphone preamplifier system and the impact of providing some of the gain in both the analog and digital domains. Whereas some applications require up to 70 dB of system gain to bring microphone levels up to drive an A/D converter, the designer can elect to provide part of the gain in an analog stage and the remaining necessary gain in the DSP following the converter. As newer high-performance A/D converters realize dynamic range and THD specs greater than 100 dB, the use of digital gain post conversion becomes feasible. The noise impact of this approach is investigated and compared to others. Models are presented for the various noise sources in the system including source resistance, amplifier equivalent input noise, converter noise, and how they contribute to the total output noise of the system.
ER  -