Patent · US Expired

Read-out photodiodes using sigma-delta oversampled analog-to-digital converters

US5142286A · kind A · utility

66Cited by
4References
31Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 1, 1990
Grant dateAug 25, 1992
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 1, 2010

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03M3/414
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Sigma-delta analog-to-digital conversion is used in sensing apparatus that generates a digital signal descriptive of light energy received by a photosensor, such as one of a plurality of photosensors that together receive various elements of a radiant-energy image. A preamplifier generates an analog output signal responsive to the photocurrent of the photosensor, which analog output signal is undesirably accompanied by wideband noise. The analog output signal is supplied to a sigma-delta analog-to-digital converter, the decimation filter of which not only suppresses in the digital signal a component arising from the quantization noise from the sigma-delta modulator portion of the analog-to-digital converter, but also suppresses a component arising from remnant wideband noise from the preamplifier.

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