# US 12,191,873 B2 · Digital-to-analog conversion apparatus having current source measuring mechanism and current source measuring method of the same

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- Number: US 12,191,873 B2
- Document ID: US12191873B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 18/087,469
- Filed: 2022-12-22
- Published: 2023-09-28
- Granted: 2025-01-07
- Earliest claimed: 2022-03-24
- Assignees: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
- Applicants: Realtek Semiconductor Corporation
- Inventors: Hsuan-Ting Ho; Shih-Hsiung Huang; Liang-Wei Huang
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12191873B2

## CPC

- H03M 1/0607: {Offset or drift compensation (removal of offset already present on the analogue input signal H03M1/1295)}
- H03M 1/687: {Segmented, i.e. the more significant bit converter being of the unary decoded type and the less significant bit converter being of the binary weighted type}
- G01K 7/00: Measuring temperature based on the use of electric or magnetic elements directly sensitive to heat (giving results other than momentary value of temperature G01K3/00) {; Power supply therefor, e.g. using thermoelectric elements}
- H03M 1/1057: {by trimming, i.e. by individually adjusting at least part of the quantisation value generators or stages to their nominal values}
- H03M 1/742: {using current sources as quantisation value generators}
- H03M: CODING; DECODING; CODE CONVERSION IN GENERAL (using fluidic means F15C4/00; optical analogue/digital converters G02F7/00; coding, decoding or code conversion, specially adapted for particular applications, see the relevant subclasses, e.g. G01D, G01R, G06F, G06T, G09G, G10L, G11B, G11C, H04B, H04L, H04M, H04N; ciphering or deciphering for cryptography or other purposes involving the need for secrecy G09C)
- G01K: MEASURING TEMPERATURE; MEASURING QUANTITY OF HEAT; THERMALLY-SENSITIVE ELEMENTS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR (radiation pyrometry G01J5/00)

## Abstract

The present invention discloses a digital-to-analog conversion apparatus having current source measuring mechanism. A digital-to-analog conversion circuit in turn sets one of thermo-controlled current sources as an initial current source to operate according to two specific input codewords included in an input digital signal to generate an output analog signal. The values of the output analog signal corresponding to the two specific input codewords have opposite signs and the same absolute value. An echo transmission circuit processes the output analog signal to generate an echo signal. An echo-canceling circuit processes the input digital signal according to echo-canceling coefficients to generate an echo-canceling signal and receives an error signal to converge the echo-canceling coefficients. A current calculating circuit generates converged coefficients statistics values and perform calculation thereon with a predetermined inverse matrix to generate a current amount of each of the thermo-controlled current sources. An error calculation circuit subtracts the echo signal and the echo-canceling signal to generate the error signal.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A digital-to-analog conversion apparatus having current source measuring mechanism, comprising:
a digital-to-analog conversion circuit comprising a plurality of thermometer-controlled current sources and configured to in turn set one of the thermometer-controlled current sources as an initial current source to be operated according to two specific input codewords comprised by an input digital signal, so as to generate an output analog signal according to a total current of the thermometer-controlled current sources, wherein the two specific input codewords control a thermometer-controlled operation status of each of the thermometer-controlled current sources to be one of a first current output status and a second current output status, and the two specific input codewords respectively make values of the output analog signal have opposite signs and substantially identical absolute values;
an echo transmission circuit to process the output analog signal to generate an echo signal;
an echo-canceling circuit to process the input digital signal according to a group of echo-canceling coefficients to generate an echo-canceling signal and to keep receiving an error signal to make the group of echo-canceling coefficients converge;
a current calculation circuit to perform statistics on the group of converged echo-canceling coefficients to generate a plurality of converged coefficients statistics values corresponding to a number of the thermometer-controlled current sources and perform calculation on the converged coefficients statistics values and a predetermined inverse matrix to generate a current amount of each of the thermometer-controlled current sources, wherein a predetermined matrix inverse to the predetermined inverse matrix reflects a different status section and an identical status section of each of the thermometer-controlled current sources corresponding to the two specific input codewords when each of the thermometer-controlled current sources is set to be the initial current source; and
an error calculation circuit to subtract the echo-canceling signal from the echo signal to generate the error signal.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The digital-to-analog conversion apparatus of claim 1, wherein the echo-canceling circuit, corresponding to the number of the thermometer-controlled current sources, generates a plurality of converged coefficient groups each having a plurality of converged coefficients; and
the current calculation circuit, for each of the converged coefficient groups, retrieves and sums absolute values of the converged coefficients up to generate the converged coefficients statistics values.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The digital-to-analog conversion apparatus of claim 2, wherein the current calculation circuit, for each of the converged coefficient groups, selects a part of the converged coefficients having relative larger values than the other part of the converged coefficients to retrieve and sum the absolute values of the selected converged coefficients up to generate the converged coefficients statistics values.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The digital-to-analog conversion apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of the thermometer-controlled current sources is M and a size of the predetermined matrix is M×M; and
each of a plurality of rows of predetermined matrix corresponds to an arrangement of the thermometer-controlled current sources and each of the rows, corresponding to the different status section and the identical status section when each of the thermometer-controlled current sources is set to be the initial current source, comprises a plurality of first elements each having a value of 1 and a plurality of second elements each having a value of 0.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The digital-to-analog conversion apparatus of claim 1, wherein the digital-to-analog conversion circuit further comprises a plurality of binary-controlled current sources, and the digital-to-analog conversion circuit, according to the two specific input codewords, controls the binary-controlled current sources to have a same binary-controlled operation status, so as to generate the output analog signal according to the total current of the thermometer-controlled current sources and the binary-controlled current sources.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The digital-to-analog conversion apparatus of claim 1, wherein the digital-to-analog conversion circuit is further configured to calculate an average current amount of the thermometer-controlled current sources to, according to the average current amount and the current amount of each of the thermometer-controlled current sources, perform a sorting process on a plurality of current offset values to generate a turn-on order; and
the digital-to-analog conversion circuit turns on the thermometer-controlled current sources according to a plurality of thermometer codes comprised by the input digital signal based on the turn-on order under an operation mode.

### Claim 7

A current source measuring method used in a digital-to-analog conversion apparatus, comprising:
setting one of a plurality of thermometer-controlled current sources comprised by a digital-to-analog conversion circuit in turn as an initial current source to be operated according to two specific input codewords comprised by an input digital signal, so as to generate an output analog signal according to a total current of the thermometer-controlled current sources, wherein the two specific input codewords control a thermometer-controlled operation status of each of the thermometer-controlled current sources to be one of a first current output status and a second current output status, and the two specific input codewords respectively make values of the output analog signal have opposite signs and substantially identical absolute values;
processing the output analog signal by an echo transmission circuit to generate an echo signal;
processing the input digital signal according to a group of echo-canceling coefficients by an echo-canceling circuit to generate an echo-canceling signal and to keep receiving an error signal to make the group of echo-canceling coefficients converge;
performing statistics on the group of converged echo-canceling coefficients by a current calculation circuit to generate a plurality of converged coefficients statistics values corresponding to a number of the thermometer-controlled current sources and performing calculation on the converged coefficients statistics values and a predetermined inverse matrix to generate a current amount of each of the thermometer-controlled current sources, wherein a predetermined matrix inverse to the predetermined inverse matrix reflects a different status section and an identical status section of each of the thermometer-controlled current sources corresponding to the two specific input codewords when each of the thermometer-controlled current sources is set to be the initial current source; and
subtracting the echo-canceling signal from the echo signal by an error calculation circuit to generate the error signal.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The current source measuring method of claim 7, further comprising:
corresponding to the number of the thermometer-controlled current sources, generating a plurality of converged coefficient groups each having a plurality of converged coefficients by the echo-canceling circuit; and
for each of the converged coefficient groups, retrieving and summing absolute values of the converged coefficients up to generate the converged coefficients statistics values by the current calculation circuit.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The current source measuring method of claim 8, further comprising:
for each of the converged coefficient groups, selecting a part of the converged coefficients having relative larger values than the other part of the converged coefficients to retrieve and sum the absolute values of the selected converged coefficients up to generate the converged coefficients statistics values by the current calculation circuit.

### Claim 10 (depends on 7)

The current source measuring method of claim 7, wherein the number of the thermometer-controlled current sources is M and a size of the predetermined matrix is M×M; and
each of a plurality of rows of predetermined matrix corresponds to an arrangement of the thermometer-controlled current sources and each of the rows, corresponding to the different status section and the identical status section when each of the thermometer-controlled current sources is set to be the initial current source, comprises a plurality of first elements each having a value of 1 and a plurality of second elements each having a value of 0.

### Claim 11 (depends on 7)

The current source measuring method of claim 7, wherein the digital-to-analog conversion circuit further comprises a plurality of binary-controlled current sources, the current source measuring method further comprising:
according to the two specific input codewords, controlling the binary-controlled current sources to have a same binary-controlled operation status by the digital-to-analog conversion circuit, so as to generate the output analog signal according to the total current of the thermometer-controlled current sources and the binary-controlled current sources.

### Claim 12 (depends on 7)

The current source measuring method of claim 7, further comprising:
calculating an average current amount of the thermometer-controlled current sources by the digital-to-analog conversion circuit to, according to the average current amount and the current amount of each of the thermometer-controlled current sources, perform a sorting process on a plurality of current offset values to generate a turn-on order; and
turning on the thermometer-controlled current sources by the digital-to-analog conversion circuit according to a plurality of thermometer codes comprised by the input digital signal based on the turn-on order under an operation mode.