Time domain analysis is used to determine whether A/D converters that employ higher order sigma-delta modulators, widely used in digital acoustic systems, have superior performance over classical synchronous A/D converters with modulators of first order when taking into account their important metrological property which is the magnitude of the quantization error. It is shown that the quantization errors of delta-sigma A/D converters with higher order modulators are exactly on the same level as for converters with a first order modulator.

The contradiction between the restriction of grating manufacturing technology and high-resolution measurement requirements has been the focus of attention. The precision requirement of angle calculation during the digital subdivision processing of a Moiré signal is focused on, the causes of errors in the solution of arcsine function are analysed, and an improved coordinate rotation digital computer (CORDIC)with double-rotation iteration is proposed by discussing the principle of the conventional CORDIC in detail herein. Because the iterative number and data width of the improved CORDIC are limited by the finite digital circuit resources and thus determine the calculation accuracy directly, subsequently the overall quantization error (OQE) of the improved CORDIC is analysed. The approximate error and rounding error of the algorithm are deduced, and the error models of iterative number and data width are established. The validity and application value of the improved CORDIC are proved through simulations and experiments involving a subdividing circuit. The corresponding relation between the approximate error, rounding error and iteration number, as well as the bit width are proved by quantization. The error of subdivision with the improved CORDIC, obtained through a calibration experiment, is within ±0.5′′ and the mean variance is 0.2′′. The results of the research can be applied directly to a digital subdivision system to guide the parameter setting in the iterative process, which is of crucial importance in the quantitative analysis of error separation and error synthesis.