Patent · US Expired

Split capacitor array for digital-to-analog signal conversion

US5889486A · kind A · utility

23Cited by
1References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 18, 1997
Grant dateMar 30, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 18, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03M1/468
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A capacitor array-based, successive approximation analog-to-digital signal converter includes a capacitor array with a central coupling capacitor having a unit-value capacitance and two sets of input coupling capacitors having capacitances which are binary weighted multiples of such unit-value capacitance. During the sampling phase, the first set of input coupling capacitors is grounded while the second set of input coupling capacitors is driven by the analog input voltage. During the holding, or conversion, phase, one of the input coupling capacitors in the second set is grounded while each one of the input coupling capacitors in the first set and each one of the remaining input coupling capacitors in the second set is driven by a respective binary multiple of a fixed reference voltage, with each one of such binary multiples corresponding to one of the bits of the successive approximation result.

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