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:
Aug. 06, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 14, 2001
Linda Argon Kamas, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Jochen Rivoir, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Agilent Technologies, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus converts an analog signal into a digital representation. The method comprises the steps of generating a quantity N of time-varying reference signals, where N is an integer greater than or equal to one, comparing an amplitude of the analog signal to an amplitude of each of the reference signals to determine whether the analog signal amplitude is greater than, less than or equal to reference signal amplitudes, and producing a timestamp each time the analog signal and reference signal amplitudes are equal. The apparatus comprises a reference signal generator and a quantity N of comparators, each of the comparators being connected to receive the analog signal, separately to receive a different one of the reference signals, and to produce a digital signal. The analog signal may be reconstructed from the digital representation.