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US 2010/0019945 A1Published application
System unit element selection
AssigneeON Semiconductor
InventorsMarc L. Keppler, Donald C. Thelen, JR.
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The management of unit element selections in a system that includes multiple unit elements. The system includes an element selection component that is configured so that each of the multiple elements is used the same number of times over a certain number of selection cycles. This preserves the first order noise shaping of the mismatch noise thereby keeping a high signal to noise ratio. In addition, the selection of the unit elements is not done in a periodic fashion. This allows the system to avoid tones within the signal band.
Claims21
A method for managing the use of a plurality of physical unit elements, the method comprising:
- identifying by a physical system a number of a plurality of physical unit elements that are to be selected for use in a current selection cycle, the physical system operating using a sequence of selection cycles, the system including the plurality of physical unit elements, a subset of the plurality of physical unit elements to be selected for use in any given selection cycle, wherein the plurality of unit elements includes a less-used portion of one or more of the plurality of physical unit elements, and a more-used portion of one or more of the plurality of physical unit elements, wherein each of the unit elements in the more-used portion has been used at least one more time than each of the unit elements in the less-used portion since a particular time, wherein the number of the plurality of physical unit elements that is identified as to be selected for use in the current selection cycle is greater than zero, but less than the number of unit elements in the less-used portion;
- selecting by the physical system the identified number of unit elements from the less-used portion, wherein an order of selection of the less-used portion is not predetermined prior to the selecting;
- and
- using the selected elements in the current selection cycle in response to the selecting.
1 more element
A method for managing the use of a plurality of physical unit elements, the method comprising:
- identifying by a physical system a number of a plurality of physical unit elements that are to be selected for use in a current selection cycle, the physical system operating using a sequence of selection cycles, the system including the plurality of physical unit elements, a subset of the plurality of physical unit elements to be selected for use in any given selection cycle, wherein the plurality of unit elements includes a less-used portion of one or more of the plurality of physical unit elements, wherein the plurality of physical unit elements includes a less-used portion of one or more of the plurality of physical unit elements, and a more-used portion of one or more of the plurality of physical unit elements, wherein each of the unit elements in the more-used portion has been used at least one more time than each of the unit elements in the less-used portion since a particular time, wherein the number of the plurality of physical unit elements that is identified as to be selected for use in the current selection cycle is greater than the number of unit elements in the less-used portion by an excess number;
- selecting all of the unit elements in the less-used portion thereby leaving only the excess number of the plurality of unit elements to be selected;
- selecting the excess number of unit elements from the more-used portion, wherein an order of selection of the more-used portion is not predetermined prior to the selecting;
- and
- using in the current selection cycle all of the less-used portion of the unit elements, and the selected elements of the more-used portion in response to the selecting the excess number.
2 more elements
A system that operates using a sequence of selection cycles, the system comprising:
- a plurality of physical unit elements;
- an element selection component configured to perform the following method for each of at least some selection cycles:
- identify a less-used portion and more-used portion of the plurality of unit elements, wherein each of the unit elements in the more-used portion has been used one more time than each of the unit elements in the less-used portion since a particular time;
- identifying a number of the plurality of unit elements that are to be selected for use, the number being greater than zero, but less than the number of unit elements in the less-used portion;
- determining whether or not the identified number of unit elements is less than the number of unit elements in the less-used portion;
- if this determination determines that the selected number of unit elements is less, then selecting the to be selected number of unit elements from the less-used portion, wherein an order of selection of the less-used portion is not predetermined prior to the selecting;
- and
- using the selected elements in response to the selecting.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.