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:
Nov. 24, 1998
Filed:
Mar. 19, 1997
Robert W Walden, Bethlehem, PA (US);
Ramin Khoini-Poorfard, Allentown, PA (US);
William E Burchanowski, Bethlehem, PA (US);
Lucent Technologies Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
Testing of digital-to-analog converters is accelerated by applying one or more different approaches. One approach relies on a switched capacitor, which lowers the overall capacitance of the converter during testing, thereby reducing the settling time for each code value. Another approach makes the duration of each testing step a function of the particular code value, rather than using the worst-case settling time for each testing step. Yet another approach uses a sequence of non-consecutive code values to determine whether each switch in the converter is functional. Using non-consecutive code values permits the use of partial settling times during converter testing. Each of the approaches can be used to accelerate the testing of D/A converters, whether they have linear or folded resistor strings.