DNL and INL
Differential Non-Linearity (DNL) and Integral Non-Linearity (INL) are two important metrics that describe the performance of an Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC).
Differential Non-Linearity is a measure of the deviation from an ideal output step size for a given input range. It is expressed in counts and is a function of an ADC's architecture. Even with calibration, it is not possible to eliminate DNL errors entirely.
Integral Non-Linearity is the maximum deviation from the ideal slope of the ADC, measured from the center of the step. Like DNL, it is expressed in counts and is a function of the ADC's architecture. INL errors are the cumulative effect of DNL errors and cannot be fully corrected through calibration.
It is important to understand both DNL and INL to properly evaluate an ADC's performance. For more details, please refer to the attached document.
Source: KBA248678
