Patent · US Expired

Statistically based continuous autocalibration method and apparatus

US4996530A · kind A · utility

129Cited by
14References
26Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateNov 27, 1989
Grant dateFeb 26, 1991
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 27, 2009

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03M1/167
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Errors in a sampled data process are discerned statistically throughout the process, permitting their efficient removal. An exemplary application is a subranging analog-to-digital converter (ADC), in which errors associated with component digital-to-analog (DAC) current sources are discerned and corrected automatically during the circuit's normal operation. This is achieved by continually introducing a random signal into the process, statistically examining the DAC output signal to discern error terms, and correlating the occurrences of these errors with the values of the random signal applied to the DACs so as to identify the current sources to which the error terms are due. The resulting ADC output signal is compensated to remove the random signal and is further compensated to remove the DAC error terms discerned by this statistical analysis. The effect of any errors that may remain due to imperfect quantification of the DAC error terms is minimized due to their randomization, permitting the removal of these error terms by averaging techniques.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.