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US 6,714,149 B2Granted
Electro-optical analog to digital conversion method and device
AssigneeThe Curators of the University of Missouri
InventorWilliam C. Nunnally
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In the invention, an analog signal is converted to an optical deflection. In preferred embodiments, an N-bit parallel output is obtained. A particularly preferred embodiment patterns the light beam with a spatial filter into an N-bit binary light pattern that is then collected and sensed by optical detectors.
Claims22
An optical probe analog to digital converter comprising:
- a light source emitting a light beam;
- an optical deflector that accepts and deflects the output of said light beam in angular variations that depend upon a magnitude of an analog signal to be converted, said deflector having at least 2N angular variations corresponding to an analog to N-bit digital conversion;
- and
- an optical detection system for translating said 2N angular variations into a N bit parallel output encoding 2N digital bits.
1 more element
An optical probe analog to digital converter comprising:
- a light source producing a light beam;
- an optical deflector for deflecting the light beam in an angle proportional to the magnitude of an analog signal to be converted;
- and
- optical detection means for producing a parallel N bit digital output, wherein the digital output depends upon the deflection angle of the light beam.
1 more element
An optical probe analog to digital converter comprising:
- an optical detection system including N rows corresponding to N bits to be encoded and 2N columns corresponding to 2N digital values to be encoded;
- a light source producing a light beam having a shape that spans N rows of said optical detector system but only one column or less of said optical detection system;
- and
- an optical deflector for deflecting said light beam over the range of the 2N columns in response to an analog signal to be converted.
1 more element
A method for performing an analog to digital conversion of an analog signal, the method comprising steps of:
- applying the analog signal to an optical deflector;
- passing a light beam through the optical deflector;
- and
- outputting a digital value that depends upon the angular deflection of the light beam.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.