Analog/digital conversion circuit
AssigneesOlympus Corporation, Denso Corporation
InventorsYusaku Koyama, Yasunari Harada, Yoshio Hagihara
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An analog-to-digital converter may include an annular delay circuit that includes a plurality of delay units connected in an annular shape, each of the plurality of delay units delaying a pulse current that is input to each of the plurality of delay units, a current source that outputs an electric current, in accordance with an input analog signal, to selected delay units, which is selected from among the plurality of delay units, and a digital signal generation unit that generates a digital signal in accordance with a number of circulations per predetermined period of time of the pulse current circulating around the annular delay circuit.
Claims7
An analog-to-digital converter comprising:
- an annular delay circuit that includes a plurality of delay units connected in an annular shape, each of the plurality of delay units delaying a pulse current that is input to each of the plurality of delay units;
- a current source that outputs an electric current, in accordance with an input analog signal, to selected delay units, which is selected from among the plurality of delay units;
- and
- a digital signal generation unit that generates a digital signal in accordance with a number of circulations per predetermined period of time of the pulse current circulating around the annular delay circuit.
An analog-to-digital conversion method comprising:
- outputting an electric current, in accordance with an input analog signal, to some delay units selected from among a plurality of delay units included in an annular delay circuit;
- and
- generating a digital signal in accordance with a number of circulations per predetermined period of time of the pulse current circulating around the annular delay circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.