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:
Apr. 15, 2014
Filed:
Oct. 31, 2012
Ess Technology, Inc., Fremont, CA (US);
A. Martin Mallinson, Kelowna, CA;
Dustin Dale Forman, Kelowna, CA;
ESS Technology, Inc., Fremont, CA (US);
Abstract
The present application describes an apparatus and method for improving the performance of ΣΔ modulators functioning as ADCs. In one embodiment, the ΣΔ modulator comprises a plurality of quantizers operating in a round-robin fashion, rather than the single quantizer of the prior art. The use of multiple quantizers allows the ΣΔ modulator to appear to be functioning at a significantly higher rate than a single quantizer allows. In another embodiment, a second-order ΣΔ modulator contains a plurality of control loops, rather than the single control loop of the prior art. The use of multiple control loops allows the ΣΔ modulator to have multiple points of maximum signal-to-noise ratio rather than a single such point as in prior art ΣΔ modulators.