Sigma-delta converter having a digital logic gate core

A method for converting an analog signal to a digital signal representative of an amplitude of said analog signal, said method comprising the steps of:

• providing a logic gate inverter of a gate array for integrating said analog signal to produce an integrated signal;
• implementing a logic gate buffer of said gate array as a quantizer for quantizing said integrated signal into a quantized signal;
• sampling said quantized signal to produce a sampled signal;
• decimating said sampled signal to generate said digital signal.

An analog to digital converter circuit comprising:

• an integrator for integrating an analog input signal to produce an integrated signal;
• a quantizer coupled to said integrator for quantizing said integrated signal to produce a quantized signal, wherein said quantizer is comprised of a logic gate, wherein said logic gate is comprised of a digital logic buffer functioning as a comparator;
• a sampler coupled to said quantizer for sampling said quantized signal;
• and
• a decimator coupled to said sampler for decimating a sampled signal from said sampler, said decimator outputting a digital signal representative of an amplitude of said analog signal.

An analog to digital converter circuit comprising:

• an integrator for integrating an analog input signal to produce an integrated signal;
• a quantizer coupled to said integrator for quantizing said integrated signal to produce a quantized signal, wherein said quantizer is comprised of a logic gate;
• a sampler coupled to said quantizer for sampling said quantized signal;
• a decimator coupled to said sampler for decimating a sampled signal from said sampler, said decimator outputting a digital signal representative of an amplitude of said analog signal;
• and
• a high pass filter coupled to said decimator for filtering out an offset of said converter.

An analog to digital converter circuit comprising:

• an integrator comprising an unbuffered CMOS inverter of a gate array for integrating an analog input signal to produce an integrated signal;
• a quantizer coupled to said integrator for quantizing said integrated signal to produce a quantized signal, wherein said quantizer is comprised of a logic gate;
• a sampler coupled to said quantizer for sampling said quantized signal;
• and
• a decimator coupled to said sampler for decimating a sampled signal from said sampler, said decimator outputting a digital signal representative of an amplitude of said analog signals.

An oversampled A/D converter comprising:

• a loop filter circuit having an open loop transfer function with a peak corresponding to a frequency wherein noise in a converted signal is minimized, wherein said transfer function is implemented by a logic gate;
• a quantizer coupled to said loop filter circuit for quantizing said converted signal to produce a quantized signal;
• a sampler coupled to said quantizer for sampling said quantized signal;
• and
• a decimator coupled to said sampler for decimating a sampled signal from said sampler, said decimator outputting a digital signal representative of an amplitude of said analog signal.