The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 24, 1986
Filed:
May. 30, 1984
Christopher W Mangelsdorf, Cambridge, MA (US);
Adrian P Brokaw, Limerick, IE;
Analog Devices, Incorporated, Norwood, MA (US);
Abstract
An analog-to-digital converter in the form of an integrated circuit providing a plurality of parallel-connected sub-converters, each producing one bit of the output word. For any sub-converter, an elongate P-type diffusion (20) serves as the base of a multiple-emitter NPN transistor. The same diffusion (20) serves as the collector of a pair of lateral PNP transistors. The lateral transistors inject current into the central diffusion, resulting in a parabolic voltage distribution along its length. A differential analog input voltage applied to the ends of the central diffusion shifts the parabolic voltage peak longitudinally along the diffusion. The multiple emitters of the NPN transistor are connected alternately to output nodes and sense the position of the parabolic voltage peak to produce the binary output.