An image pickup apparatus includes a plurality of pixels arranged in rows and columns, a plurality of comparators, each of the comparators including a switch for controlling an operation, a signal line which is provided commonly to the switches of the plurality of comparators and through which a control signal for controlling the switches of the plurality of comparators is supplied, a control signal generation unit, and a signal line control unit configured to control an electric potential of the signal line to be set as a fixed electric potential.

An image pickup apparatus includes a plurality of pixels arranged in rows and columns, a plurality of comparators, each of the comparators including a switch for controlling an operation, a signal line which is provided commonly to the switches of the plurality of comparators and through which a control signal for controlling the switches of the plurality of comparators is supplied, a control signal generation unit, and a signal line control unit configured to control an electric potential of the signal line to be set as a fixed electric potential.

A method and a circuit are arranged for adapting a first reference value for generating a first bit stream from an input signal by a first amplitude adapting unit. The input signal comprises a first and a second signal. The first signal and the second signal form a baseband sum signal. A first non-linear component demodulates the input signal and outputs a demodulated input signal. The amplitude adapting unit outputs the first bit stream from the demodulated input signal on the basis of a first reference value. A reference-value adapting unit comprises a detection unit which detects the first and the second signal. Upon discontinuation of the first and second signals, an adjusting unit adjusts the first reference value to a basic reference value.

An A/D conversion circuit includes a reference voltage source to generate a calibration voltage, a multiplexer to receive an analog signal and the calibration voltage, and output the analog signal selected in a normal mode and the calibration voltage selected in a calibration mode or a self-diagnosis mode, an A/D converter to convert an output signal from the multiplexer into a digital signal, a non-volatile memory to hold the digital signal and calibration data, a digital calibration part to calibrate the digital signal in case of inputting the analog signal to the A/D converter in the normal mode based on the calibration data, and a self-diagnosis circuit to diagnose the A/D converter based on the digital signal in case of inputting the calibration voltage to the A/D converter in the self-diagnosis mode, and the digital signal stored in the non-volatile memory.

An A/D conversion circuit includes a reference voltage source to generate a calibration voltage, a multiplexer to receive an analog signal and the calibration voltage, and output the analog signal selected in a normal mode and the calibration voltage selected in a calibration mode or a self-diagnosis mode, an A/D converter to convert an output signal from the multiplexer into a digital signal, a non-volatile memory to hold the digital signal and calibration data, a digital calibration part to calibrate the digital signal in case of inputting the analog signal to the A/D converter in the normal mode based on the calibration data, and a self-diagnosis circuit to diagnose the A/D converter based on the digital signal in case of inputting the calibration voltage to the A/D converter in the self-diagnosis mode, and the digital signal stored in the non-volatile memory.

Embodiments of the present disclosure include a differential digital delay line analog-to-digital converter (ADC), comprising differential digital delay lines including series coupled delay cells, wherein a delay time of a first delay line is controlled by a first input of the ADC and a delay time of a second delay line is controlled by a second input of the ADC. The ADC includes a pair of bypass multiplexers coupled at a predefined node location in the series coupled delay cells, latches each coupled with the series coupled delay cells, a converter circuit coupled with the plurality of latches configured to convert data from the latches into an output value of the ADC, and logic circuits configured to select data from the series coupled delay cells to the latches depending on a selected resolution of the differential digital delay line analog-to-digital converter.

Embodiments of the present disclosure include a differential digital delay line analog-to-digital converter (ADC), comprising differential digital delay lines including series coupled delay cells, wherein a delay time of a first delay line is controlled by a first input of the ADC and a delay time of a second delay line is controlled by a second input of the ADC. The ADC includes a pair of bypass multiplexers coupled at a predefined node location in the series coupled delay cells, latches each coupled with the series coupled delay cells, a converter circuit coupled with the plurality of latches configured to convert data from the latches into an output value of the ADC, and logic circuits configured to select data from the series coupled delay cells to the latches depending on a selected resolution of the differential digital delay line analog-to-digital converter.

A subsystem configured to implement an analog to digital converter that includes a high speed comparator with an embedded reference voltage level that functions as a calibrated threshold. A calibration element applies power to a reference voltage system. The calibration element then selects a differential analog voltage and applies the differential analog voltage to the inputs of the comparator. A digitally coded signal then configures an array of switches that connect complements of integrated resistors to each input of the comparator so that the switching point of the comparator occurs coincident with the applied differential analog reference voltage, nulling out the effect of the applied differential analog voltage and comparator errors. The calibration element then removes power from the reference voltage system. As a result, the comparator is configured with an embedded threshold that equals the differential analog reference voltage.

A subsystem configured to implement an analog to digital converter that includes a high speed comparator with an embedded reference voltage level that functions as a calibrated threshold. A calibration element applies power to a reference voltage system. The calibration element then selects a differential analog voltage and applies the differential analog voltage to the inputs of the comparator. A digitally coded signal then configures an array of switches that connect complements of integrated resistors to each input of the comparator so that the switching point of the comparator occurs coincident with the applied differential analog reference voltage, nulling out the effect of the applied differential analog voltage and comparator errors. The calibration element then removes power from the reference voltage system. As a result, the comparator is configured with an embedded threshold that equals the differential analog reference voltage.

A pipelined ADC that does not wait for the residue of a signal to settle to be delivered to the next stage of the pipeline, and thus passes signals to subsequent stages at faster than conventional speeds. A pipelined ADC is used that processes signals representing the boundaries of the search space. Thus, each stage does not necessarily receive the signal as pre-processed by the prior stage, but rather the search space boundaries as pre-processed by the prior stage. Reducing the “search space” of the ADC is equivalent to creating the residues in each step of a pipeline as in the prior art. An ADC operating in this fashion operates without error even if the residual search space boundary outputs from one state are presented to the next stage before the outputs have settled, and can run faster for a given power and bandwidth.