Low power synchronization of multiple analog to digital converters
AssigneeAnalog Devices Global Unlimited Company
InventorNarsimh Dilip Kamath
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system having two or more sensing nodes coupled to a control node using a serial communication channel having separate transmit and receive circuits, where each sensing node includes an ADC circuit and a microcontroller, operation of the ADC circuit in each sensing node is concurrently synchronized by the control node using the transmit circuit (e.g., with respect to the control node) of the serial communication channel. The control node can synchronize operation of two or more ADC circuits in separate sensing nodes without using shared clocks or other control signals.
Claims20
A system for synchronizing two or more analog to digital converter circuits, the system comprising:
- a first processing circuit comprising a first timer;
- a second processing circuit comprising a second timer;
- and
- a control circuit coupled to the first processing circuit and to the second processing circuit using a first electrical conductor to transmit data and a second electrical conductor to receive data, the control circuit to:
- transmit a trigger signal simultaneously to the first processing circuit and to the second processing circuit using the first electrical conductor to cause the first processing circuit and the second processing circuit to synchronize the first timer and the second timer, respectively, using the trigger signal,
- receive, using the second electrical conductor, first serial data from the first processing circuit, the first serial data comprising a first digital sample of an analog signal and a timestamp to indicate a time at which the digital sample was captured, the timestamp determined using a value of the first timer.
A system for synchronizing two or more analog to digital converter circuits using a data transmit electrical conductor of a serial communication channel and a data receive electrical conductor of the serial communication channel, the system comprising:
- two or more electrode pods, each of the two or more electrode pods comprising a first processing circuit and an analog to digital converter circuit, the first processing circuit configured to:
- receive, on the data transmit electrical conductor, a trigger signal from a data transmit circuit of a the serial communication channel,
- synchronize a counter after receiving the trigger signal, the counter being internal to each of the two or more electrode pods,
- generate, using the analog to digital converter circuit, one or more digital samples of an analog signal,
- generate at least one timestamp to indicate a time at which the one or more digital samples were generated, the at least one timestamp determined using at least one value of the counter,
- transmit the one or more digital samples and the at least one timestamp to the serial communication channel;
- and
- a belt unit comprising a second processing circuit, the second processing circuit to:
- transmit, on the data transmit electrical conductor, the trigger signal to the two or more electrode pods,
- receive, on the data receive electrical conductor after transmitting the trigger signal, the one or more digital samples and the at least one timestamp from the two or more electrode pods, and
- synchronize the received one or more digital samples using the at least one timestamp.
A method of synchronizing two or more analog to digital converter circuits using a data transmit electrical conductor of a serial communication channel and a data receive electrical conductor of the serial communication channel, the method comprising:
- transmitting a trigger signal to a first processing circuit and to a second processing circuit using the data transmit electrical conductor, the trigger signal configured to:
- cause the first processing circuit to synchronize a first counter in the first processing circuit to the trigger signal,
- cause the second processing circuit to synchronize a second counter in the second processing circuit to the trigger signal,
- cause the first processing circuit and the second processing circuit to generate one or more digital samples of and analog signal and transmit serial data to the control circuit using the data receive electrical conductor, the serial data comprising the one or more digital samples and at least one timestamp comprising data indicative of a time at which the one or more digital samples were generated, the at least one timestamp determined using a value of the first counter or a value of the second counter;
- receiving, after transmitting the trigger signal, the serial data transmitted by the first processing circuit and the second processing circuit;
- and
- synchronizing a first part of the serial data with a second part of the serial data using the at least one timestamp, the first part of the serial data being received from the first processing circuit, and the second part of the serial data being received from the second processing circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.