High-speed analog-to-digital converter and method
AssigneeRealtek Semiconductor Corp.
InventorChia-Liang (Leon) Lin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A circuit having an input comparator configured to receive an input voltage and output an input dependent polarity signal along with an input dependent timing signal; a reference comparator configured to receive a reference voltage and output a reference dependent polarity signal along with a reference dependent timing signal; a time-to-digital converter configured to receive the input dependent timing signal and the reference dependent timing signal and output a digital signal; and an output encoder configured to receive the input dependent polarity signal and the digital signal and output an output data representing an analog-to-digital conversion of the input voltage.
Claims20
A circuit comprising:
- a comparator array comprising a first comparator configured to receive an input voltage and output a first polarity signal indicating a polarity of the input voltage along with a first ready signal indicating the first polarity signal is ready in accordance with a timing of a clock signal, and a second comparator configured to receive a first reference voltage and output a second polarity signal indicating a polarity of the first reference voltage along with a second ready signal indicating the second polarity signal is ready in accordance with the timing of the clock signal;
- a time-to-digital converter configured to receive the first ready signal and the second ready signal and output a digital signal indicating a relative timing between the first ready signal and the second ready signal;
- and
- an output encoder configured to receive the first polarity signal and the digital signal and output an output data representing an analog-to-digital conversion of the input voltage.
A circuit comprising:
- an input comparator configured to receive an input voltage and output an input-dependent polarity signal along with an input-dependent ready signal;
- N reference comparators configured to receive N reference voltages and output N reference-dependent polarity signals along with N reference-dependent ready signals, respectively, wherein N is an integer greater than one;
- a time-to-digital converter configured to receive the input-dependent ready signal and the N reference-dependent ready signals and output a digital signal quantifying a relative timing of the input-dependent ready signal with respect to the N reference-dependent ready signals;
- and
- an output encoder configured to receive the input-dependent polarity signal and the digital signal and output an output data representing an analog-to-digital conversion of the input voltage, wherein:
- the input-dependent ready signal is asserted when the input comparator finishes a detection of a polarity of the input voltage, and each of the N reference-dependent ready signal is asserted when a respective reference comparator finishes a detection of a polarity of a respective reference voltage.
A method comprising:
- receiving an input voltage and a plurality of reference voltages comprising at least a first reference voltage and a second reference voltage;
- concurrently detecting the input voltage using an input comparator and detecting said plurality of reference voltages using a plurality of reference comparators comprising at least a first reference comparator and a second reference comparator, respectively, wherein the first input comparator outputs an input-dependent timing signal and said plurality of reference comparators output a plurality of reference-dependent timing signals comprising at least a first reference-dependent timing signal and a second reference-dependent timing signal, respectively;
- conducting a time-to-digital conversion to detect a relative timing between the input-dependent timing signal and said plurality of reference-dependent timing signals;
- determining a polarity of the input voltage based on a result of detecting the input voltage;
- and
- determining a range of the input voltage based on a result of the time-to-digital conversion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.