Patent · US Expired

Circuit for generating sampling signals at closely spaced time intervals

US5652533A · kind A · utility

6Cited by
12References
30Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 19, 1995
Grant dateJul 29, 1997
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 19, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03K5/15073
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An electronic circuit suitable for sampling an incoming data bit stream in order to recover the information contained in the data stream contains an input section, a reference section, and a comparing section. The input section produces a ramp signal that switches between a first endpoint voltage and a second endpoint voltage in a periodic manner. The reference section furnishes a plurality of reference voltages between the two endpoint voltages. The comparing section compares the ramp signal to the reference voltages to produce corresponding sampling signals. Each sampling signal makes a first voltage transition as the ramp signal passes a corresponding reference voltage in going from the second endpoint voltage to the first endpoint voltage. Accordingly, the first transitions of the sampling signals occur in groups, each group being spread out in time during part of a period of the ramp signal. A data sampling portion of the circuit utilizes the sampling signals to sample the input data bit stream.

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