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:
May. 08, 1990
Filed:
Dec. 13, 1988
Christopher W Mangelsdorf, Reading, MA (US);
Analog Devices, Inc., Norwood, MA (US);
Abstract
The apparatus comprises a parallel analog-to-digital converter comprising a matrix of differentially coupled transistor pairs wherein the base of one transistor of each differential pair is coupled to a reference voltage and the base of the other transistor of each differential pair is coupled to the input voltage through a specified offset. In each row of differential pairs, the collectors of the transistors are alternately coupled to first and second row output points. The first and second row output points of each row are coupled to the inverting and non-inverting inputs, respectively of a comparator. Additional comparators are provided for comparing the second row output of each row with the first row output of the succeeding row. The matrix is arranged such that the combination of the comparator outputs is unique for each possible digital level in the full scale range of the converter. Logic circuitry is coupled to the comparator outputs to produce a computer usable code therefrom.