The Critical Factors of a High-performance Audio Codec. What Chip Designers Need to Know.

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Innosilicon.com, Mar. 12, 2025 – 

Introduction

The market for audio applications and devices has significantly grown over the last couple
of years. Applications such as smart speakers, Bluetooth speakers, smartphones, and
voice-controlled human-machine interfaces (HMI) have gained great popularity, leading to a
steady stream of new and improved audio devices. All these applications integrate an audio
codec, which is responsible for converting an analog audio signal to a digital audio signal
and vice versa. The audio codec performance directly impacts the sound quality of the
device, which makes it one of the most important functions of an audio system.
This white paper will explore the technology and features of high-performance audio codecs.
It will explain commonly used technologies such as sampling rate, quantization, signal-to-
noise ratio (SNR), oversampling, and Sigma-Delta modulation. The use of compression
algorithms, such as MP3, AC’97 is beyond the scope of this paper. This paper will only
discuss the details and importance of analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-
analog converter (DAC) of a codec.
Finally, this paper will highlight some of the typical challenges IC designers face when
integrating an audio codec into their system or SoC. It will be shown how implementing an
off-the-shelf audio codec is an option to increase time-to-market and limit the design risk
while also maintaining customizability and flexibility.

CODEC Overview

A codec (coder-decoder or compressor-decompressor) is a function used to encode and
decode data, such as audio, video, or other types of files. It transforms raw data into a
compressed format to save storage space or reduce transmission bandwidth and then
converts it back into its original form. Often, a codec is combined with a digital-to-analog
(DAC) and an analog-to-digital (ADC)converter, which converts an analog signal into a digital
signal and vice versa. Depending on the application requirement, many compression
algorithms exist, e.g. MP3, MP4, AC’97, WAV, and can be integrated into the codec.

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