Techniques for reducing correlated errors in multi-channel sampling systems
AssigneeAnalog Devices, Inc.
InventorGary CARREAU
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Techniques to reduce correlated errors in a multi-channel sampling system. A plurality of clock signals may be generated from a master clock signal, each with edges offset from each other. The offset clock signals may be distributed to a plurality of sampling devices. Each sampling device may capture a respective input signal according to its offset clock. In this manner, the sampling units may sample their inputs signals over a distributed window of time rather than sampling in response to a common clock edge. By distributing the switching operations performed by the sampling units, noise effects are likely to be reduced.
Claims20
A multi-channel sampling system, comprising:
- a plurality of sampling devices;
- a dithering unit for generating a plurality of sub-clock signals from a master clock signal, each sub-clock signal having an edge offset from edges of other sub-clock signals;
- a router unit to distribute the sub-clock signals to the sampling devices;
- and
- each of the plurality of sampling devices capturing respective input data signals according to an edge of a respective sub-clock.
An image sensor system, comprising:
- a pixel array;
- a plurality of sampling devices coupled to respective outputs of the pixel array, and having a clock input;
- a clock system, comprising:
- a dithering unit for generating a plurality of sub-clock signals from a master clock signal, each sub-clock signal having an edge offset from edges of other sub-clock signals;
- and
- a router unit to distribute the sub-clock signals to the sampling devices.
A method for dithering a sampling event for a plurality of data signals, comprising:
- generating a plurality of sub-clock signals from a master clock, wherein the generated sub-clock signals have clock edges offset from each other;
- distributing the generated sub-clock signals to a plurality of sampling devices;
- and
- capturing an input signal at each sampling device at a time determined by its received sub-clock signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.