Digital sensors, electrical circuits and methods
AssigneeKnowles Electronics, LLC
InventorsAllan Nielsen, Emil Jakobsen, Per F. Høvesten
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The disclosure relates to microphone and other sensor assemblies having a transduction element and an integrated circuit. The integrated circuit includes a switched-capacitor delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter (ADC) including a first integrator stage having a switched-capacitor circuit and a first plurality of parallel amplifiers. A logic circuit coupled to the integrator circuit is configured to selectably disable a subset of enabled amplifiers of the first integrator stage during a first phase of operation and to re-enable the subset of disabled amplifiers during a second phase.
Claims20
A sensor assembly comprising:
- a transduction element configured to generate an electrical signal in response to detecting an environmental condition;
- an integrated circuit comprising a delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter (ADC) coupled to the transduction element and configured to convert the electrical signal into a digital signal, the ADC comprising an integrator circuit including a first integrator stage comprising a switched-capacitor circuit (SCC) and a first plurality of amplifiers connected in parallel,
- the first integrator stage having a first phase of operation during which charge sampling occurs and a second phase of operation during which charge redistribution occurs;
- and
- a logic circuit coupled to the integrator circuit and configured to selectably disable a subset of enabled amplifiers of the first integrator stage during the first phase and to re-enable the subset of disabled amplifiers during the second phase.
An integrated circuit for a sensor assembly, the integrated circuit comprising:
- a delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured to convert an electrical signal generated by a transconductance element of a sensor assembly into a digital signal when the integrated circuit is coupled to the transconductance element,
- the ADC comprising an integrator circuit including a first integrator stage comprising a switched-capacitor circuit (SCC) and a first plurality of amplifiers connected in parallel, the first integrator stage having a first phase of operation during which charge sampling occurs and a second phase of operation during which charge redistribution occurs;
- and
- a logic circuit coupled to the integrator circuit and configured to selectably disable a subset of enabled amplifiers of the first integrator stage during the first phase and to re-enable the subset of disabled amplifiers during the second phase.
A method of operating a digital sensor assembly, the method comprising:
- generating an electrical signal with a transconduction element upon detection of an environmental condition;
- converting the electrical signal to a digital signal with a delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter (ADC) comprising a plurality of integrator stages having a switched-capacitor circuit and a plurality of parallel amplifiers, the converting including:
- performing charge sampling in a first integrator stage during a first phase when a first subset of the plurality of parallel amplifiers of the first integrator stage are enabled;
- and
- redistributing charge in the first integrator stage during a second phase when a second subset of the plurality of parallel amplifiers of the first integrator stage are enabled, wherein first subset has fewer enabled amplifiers than the second subset.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.