Ultra high speed, low power, flash A/D converter utilizing a current mode regenerative comparator
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsKevin W. Glass, Waleed Khalil, Bart R. McDaniel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for performing analog to digital conversion. A voltage to current converter converts an analog input voltage to an input current. A current reference generates a reference current. A plurality of scaling elements scaled the reference current to yield a plurality of scaled reference currents each corresponding to some voltage level within the dynamic range of the input voltage. The input current is compared to each of the scaled reference currents in a plurality of current comparators to generate a thermometer code from which a digital representation of the analog input voltage is derived.
Claims9
An A/D converter comprising:
- a first voltage to current converter which generates an input current from an analog input voltage;
- a current reference for generating first reference current;
- a first plurality of scaling elements for generating a plurality of scaled reference currents;
- a second plurality of scaling elements for generating a plurality of scaled input currents;
- and
- a plurality of current comparators which compare the scaled input currents to the scaled reference currents to generate a thermometer code.
A method of converting an analog signal to a digital signal comprising the steps of:
- converting a voltage input to an input current;
- creating a reference current and a plurality of multiples of the reference current;
- comparing the input current to each of the reference current and the multiples of the reference current to generate a thermometer code;
- and
- converting the thermometer code to a digital value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.