S3 Incorporated, Inc.

Waytech Investment Co. Ltd.

Wei-Chan Hsu

Chingwo Ma

Inging Yang

Invention resides in a switching amplifier having a quaternary input control signal that provides quaternary levels (1, 0H, &minus;1, and 0L) which is coupled to an H-bridge amplifier to provide error cancellation in switching amplifier output signal. The quaternary control signal alternates from a zero state at a high level (&ldquo;0H&rdquo;) to a zero state at a low level (&ldquo;0L&rdquo;) between each non-zero state (&plus;1 or &minus;1). In a preferred embodiment, a three-level sigma-delta modulator is provided for greater operational efficiency for ease of detecting zero states and minimizing power. The three-level sigma-delta modulator receives and converts an amplifier input signal into a ternary output signal that is then coupled to a ternary-to-quaternary converter to generate the quaternary control signal to provide as input to the H-bridge.

Switching amplifier incorporating return-to-zero quaternary power switch

A conversion system and method is disclosed for converting between digital and analog data signals. The conversion system comprises a signal input line for each digital data signal, a reconstructor-resampler unit for each digital data signal, a combiner, a modulator, a digital-to-analog converter, and a signal output line. Each signal line input couples to the respective reconstructor-resampler unit for the digital data signal. Each reconstructor-resampler unit then couples to a combiner which couples to a modulator. The modulator couples to the digital-to-analog converter that couples to the signal output line from which an analog output signal is produced. The reconstructor-resampler comprises a sampling member coupled to the signal line input and a polynomial interpolator member coupled to the sampling member and the modulator. Also, the modulator operates at a predetermined, or fixed, frequency regardless of the sampling frequency of the digital data signal. The steps of the conversion method include inputting a digital data signal having a sampling frequency, reconstructing and resampling the digital data signal to generate a resampled data signal, performing noise-shaping on the resampled data signal to generate a x-bit data signal from a modulator operating at a predetermined frequency regardless of the sampling frequency of any of the digital data signals, and converting the x-bit data signal to an analog data signal. In addition, an analog-to-digital conversion system and method is disclosed that comprises a signal line input, a decimator, a reconstructor-resampler a signal output line, and a modulator operating at a predetermined frequency to convert an analog data signal to a digital data signal.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Wei-Chan Hsu