Analog to digital converter
First Claim
1. A analog to digital converter, comprising:
- an input for receiving an input signal to be digitised;
a first converter core for performing a first part of an analog to digital conversion, and for outputting a first digital result;
a first residue generator for generating a first residue as a difference between the input signal and the first digital result;
a second converter core for performing a second part of the analog to digital conversion by converting the first residue;
wherein at least one of the first and second converter cores comprises at least three analog to digital conversion engines and a controller for controlling the operation of the engines such that the engines collaborate to perform a successive approximation search.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A analog to digital converter, comprising: an input for receiving an input signal to be digitised; a first converter core for performing a first part of an analog to digital conversion, and for outputting a first digital result; a first residue calculator for calculating a first residue as a difference between the input signal and the first digital result; a second converter core for performing a second part of the analog to digital conversion by converting the first residue; wherein at least one of the first and second converter cores comprises at least three analog to digital conversion engines and a controller for controlling the operation of the engines such that the engines collaborate to perform a successive approximation search, and wherein a plurality of bits can be determined during a single trial step of the successive approximation search.
27 Citations
21 Claims
-
1. A analog to digital converter, comprising:
-
an input for receiving an input signal to be digitised;
a first converter core for performing a first part of an analog to digital conversion, and for outputting a first digital result;
a first residue generator for generating a first residue as a difference between the input signal and the first digital result;
a second converter core for performing a second part of the analog to digital conversion by converting the first residue;
wherein at least one of the first and second converter cores comprises at least three analog to digital conversion engines and a controller for controlling the operation of the engines such that the engines collaborate to perform a successive approximation search. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20)
-
-
16. An analog to digital converter comprising:
-
a first stage having a plurality of conversion engines adapted to operate in a collaborative manner such that they perform a successive approximation search where two bits are determined during a trial step and where the first stage acts to form a first digital word representing a first portion of an analog signal;
an amplification stage for receiving an analog signal from the first stage representing a difference between the analog signal and the digitised first portion of the analog signal;
a second stage having a plurality of conversion engines adapted to operate in a collaborative manner such that they perform a successive approximation search where two bits are determined during a trial step and the second stage forms a second digital word; and
a combiner for combining the first and second digital words to produce an output word. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
-
-
19. A method of converting an analog signal into a digitised value, comprising the steps of:
-
receiving an input signal to be digitised, using a first converter core to perform a first part of an analog to digital conversion and outputting the result of a first digital result;
forming a residue as a difference between the input signal and the first digital result;
using a second converter core to perform a second part of an analog to digital conversion by converting the first residue;
wherein at least one of the first and second converter cores comprises at least three analog to digital conversion engines adapted to operate in a collaborative manner.
-
-
21. A method of converting an analog value into a digitised equivalent, the method comprising the steps of:
-
i. sampling the analog value into a plurality of first stage conversion engines;
ii. operating the first stage conversion engines in a collaborative manner to perform a successive approximation conversion where at least two bits can be determined during a single trial step;
iii. digitising a first plurality of bits to form a first digital representation, and forming a residue between the analog equivalent of the first digital representation and the analog value;
iv. amplifying the residue;
v. sampling the residue into a plurality of second stage conversion engines;
vi. operating the second stage conversion engines in a collaborative manner to perform a successive approximation conversion where at least two bits can be determined during a single trial step so as to determine a second digital representation; and
vii. using the first and second digital representations to produce a digital output value.
-
Specification