US 5,510,736 AGranted

Differential sampler circuit

AssigneeU.S. Philips Corporation

InventorRudy Van de Plassche

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Abstract

The subject of the invention is a differential sampler circuit including a voltage/current converter (1) having two differential inputs (E1a, E1b) and two outputs (S1a, S1b). According to the invention, each of these outputs is linked via an input multiplexer module (2a) to two interposed track-and-hold modules (5a, 6a), in such a way that at any instant one of the track-and-hold modules (5a, 6a) operates in track mode whereas the other (6a, 5a) operates in hold mode. These two modules (5a, 6a) are linked to the output (S4a) of the sampler circuit via an output multiplexer module (7a). This structure makes it possible to double the sampling frequency without increasing the intrinsic speed of the circuit. Each track-and-hold module (5a, 6a) includes an input load (10a, 11a) linked in parallel with a capacitor (C18a, C19a), an output emitter-follower transistor (T20a, T21a), and a switching cell (5-6a). Thus, the high-frequency performance of the circuit is improved.

Claims13

Dependent claims

Differential sampler circuit, comprising:

a first and second input multiplexer modules;
a first and second output multiplexer modules;
two track and hold modules;
two differential inputs;
two outputs;
and
a voltage/current converter whose inputs are coupled to the differential inputs and which has two outputs,
wherein one of the outputs of the voltage/current converter is linked via the first input multiplexer module and controlled by a first clock signal, to the inputs of the first and second track-and-hold modules whose outputs are linked to one of the outputs of the sampler circuit via the first output multiplexer module controlled by a second clock signal, in such a way that:
for a first level of the first and second clock signals, the first track-and-hold module operates in track mode whereas the second track-and-hold module operates in hold mode,
for a second level of the first and second clock signals, the first track-and-hold module operates in hold mode whereas the second track-and-hold module operates in track mode,
and in that the other output of the voltage/current converter is coupled to the other output of the sampler circuit via the second input multiplexer module, via two track-and-hold modules and via the second output multiplexer module which are configured correspondingly and controlled by the same clock signals.

8 more elements

A differential sampler circuit, comprising:

an input for receiving a signal;
an input multiplexing device for receiving the signal and for providing a first and a second multiplexed signal under control of a clock signal;
a first track-and-hold module for receiving the first multiplexed signal;
a second track-and-hold module for receiving the second multiplexed signal;
an output stage for receiving outputs from the first and second track-and-hold modules;
wherein for a first level of the clock signal, the first track-and-hold module operates in track mode whereas the second track-and-hold module operates in hold mode, and
for a second level of the clock signal, the first track-and-hold module operates in the hold mode whereas the second track-and-hold module operates in track mode.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.