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, 2003
Filed:
Dec. 04, 2001
Mohsen Moussavi, Ottawa, CA;
Catena Networks, Inc., Redwood Shores, CA (US);
Abstract
A pipelined digital-to-analog converter (DAC) converts a digital input to an analog output. The pipelined DAC has a plurality of stages. A first of the plurality of stages is coupled to an initialization capacitor and ground. Each of the remainder of the plurality of stages is coupled to a respective previous stage. Each of the plurality of stages includes a capacitor, a first switch and a second switch. The capacitor has first and second plates. The capacitor receives a charge at the first plate in accordance with an associated bit of the digital input. The first switch couples the first plate of the capacitor to ground when the capacitor is not receiving the charge. The second switch couples the second plate of the capacitor to ground when the capacitor is receiving the charge. Coupling the capacitor to ground reduces the effect of stray capacitance in the pipelined DAC, improving its performance.