The LTC2274 is part of a 16-bit high performance ADC family with a very linear transfer function. However, at low input levels, even slight imperfections in the transfer function will result in unwanted tones in the ADC output spectrum. Small errors in the transfer function are usually a result of ADC element mismatches. With low level input signals, the ADC only uses a small region of the transfer curve and therefore only uses a small set of output codes. Any slight non-linearity in the transfer function will generate spurs in the output spectrum, represented here in the blue FFT graph.

