Direct sampling receiver with continuous-time mdac

A method comprising:

• in a first signal path:
• receiving and sampling an input signal in an M-bit analog-to-digital (ADC) converter to generate a coarse signal in the digital domain, and
• converting the coarse signal in the digital domain to a coarse signal in the analog domain in an M-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC);
• and
• in a second signal communication path:
• receiving but not sampling the input signal,
• subtracting the coarse signal from the input signal in the analog domain to generate a residue signal, and
• sampling the residue signal in an N-bit ADC to generate a fine signal;
• and
• digitally combining the coarse and fine signals in the digital domain to generate an output signal.

A device comprising:

• an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that converts an analog signal into a plurality of bits, the ADC comprising:
• a coarse ADC that samples the analog signal to generate a coarse bit in the plurality of bits;
• a fine ADC that samples a residue of the analog signal instead of the analog signal to generate a fine bit in the plurality of bits;
• and
• a digital combiner that combines the coarse and fine signals to generate a digital representation of the analog signal.