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. 09, 1998
Filed:
Jan. 14, 1997
Bernard Ginetti, Antibes, FR;
VLSI Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
An interstage amplifier for a pipelined analog-to-digital converter comprises an operational amplifier (50) having two balanced amplifying paths; a first pair of capacitors (55,58); a second pair of capacitors (56,57); and switching means (59-62) connected to the capacitors and said amplifier and arranged for: (i) during a first phase, enabling the first pair of capacitors (55,58) to receive a respective first sample of a first signal; (ii) during a second phase, enabling the second pair of capacitors (56,57) to receive a second sample of the first signal; (iii) during a third phase, enabling the first pair of capacitors (55,58) to receive a first sample of a second or reference signal and to enable charge to be transferred from each of the first pair of capacitors by way of a respective path of the amplifier to a respective one of the second pair of capacitors; and (iv) during a fourth phase, enabling the second pair of capacitors (56,57) to receive a second sample of the said second or reference signal and to enable charge to be transferred from each of the second pair of capacitors by way of a respective path of the amplifier to the respective one of the first pair of capacitors. The arrangement provides first-order correction of capacitor mismatch.