Analog-to-digital converter having punctured quantizer
AssigneeSilicon Laboratories Inc.
InventorJohn M. Khoury
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In one embodiment, an analog-to-digital converter includes: a sum circuit to receive an analog input signal and a feedback reference signal and generate a sum signal; a feedback circuit coupled to the sum circuit to provide the feedback reference signal to the sum circuit; a filter coupled to the sum circuit to receive the sum signal and generate a filtered signal; and a punctured quantizer coupled to the filter to receive the filtered signal and quantize the filtered signal to a digital output and to output the digital output and to provide the digital output to the feedback circuit.
Claims19
An apparatus comprising:
- a sum circuit to receive an analog input signal and a feedback reference signal and generate a sum signal;
- a feedback circuit coupled to the sum circuit to provide the feedback reference signal to the sum circuit;
- a filter coupled to the sum circuit to receive the sum signal and generate a filtered signal;
- and
- a punctured quantizer coupled to the filter to receive the filtered signal and quantize the filtered signal to a digital output and to output the digital output and to provide the digital output to the feedback circuit, the punctured quantizer comprising a non-linear quantizer having a plurality of levels, the plurality of levels related but having one or more gaps between at least some of the plurality of levels.
A method comprising:
- receiving, in a sum circuit of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), an analog input signal and summing the analog input signal with a feedback reference signal to generate a sum signal;
- filtering, in a filter of the ADC, the sum signal to output a filtered signal;
- quantizing, in a punctured quantizer of the ADC, the filtered signal to form a quantized signal, the punctured quantizer having more than two levels, wherein at least some of the more than two levels are non-linear;
- and
- generating a digital output based on the quantized signal, the digital output corresponding to the analog input signal.
An apparatus comprising:
- an audio sensor to receive an audio signal;
- at least one amplifier to provide gain to the audio signal;
- a noise shaping sigma-delta analog-to digital converter (ADC) coupled to the at least one amplifier, the noise shaping sigma-delta ADC comprising:
- a filter to receive an analog representation of the audio signal and generate a filtered signal;
- and
- a punctured quantizer coupled to the filter to receive the filtered signal and quantize the filtered signal to a digital output, the punctured quantizer having more than two levels, wherein the more than two levels have a non-linear relationship;
- and
- a controller coupled to the noise shaping sigma-delta ADC, the controller to receive the digital output and perform an operation based at least in part on the digital output.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.