All ADCs have an intrinsic error, from the nature of the analog-digital conversion process, known as the quantization error (q). Quantization error is not a fault in the part, it is inevitable. The quantization error of a perfect ADC is ±½ LSB. Since the plot of error vs. actual analog input is a sawtooth, the mean value is where q is 1 LSB. In an AC sampled data system this quantization error appears as quantization noise in the digital output. In the more common case, this noise is uniformly distributed across the band of frequencies from 0 to FS/2. This is not always the case though.

