An analog-to-digital converter may convert an analog signal into digital codes representative of the changing level of the analog signal. An analog high pass filter may receive and continuously differentiate the analog signal. A voltage controlled oscillator may receive the differentiated analog signal and continuously generates an output that is an integral of the differentiated analog signal in the phase domain. A time-to-digital converter may sample the output of the voltage controlled oscillator and convert each sample into a digital code representative of the current phase of the sampled output of the voltage controlled oscillator.

An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuit is configured to receive an analog input signal and convert the analog input signal to a digital output signal. The ADC circuit includes a first circuit that is configured to convert the analog input signal into a first digital signal that includes a first subset of bits of the digital output signal and further provide a residue signal based on the first digital signal; and a second circuit, coupled to the first circuit, and is configured to determine a discharging time duration by simultaneously amplifying and discharging the residue signal.

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.

In one form, a signal chain circuit includes a signal chain processing circuit between an input for receiving a differential input signal having a first common-mode voltage, and an output for providing a differential output signal having a second, different common-mode voltage. It includes an amplifier with a differential output stage coupled to a differential input stage and having positive and negative output terminals forming its output, and positive and negative feedback terminals. The differential output stage provides a first voltage drop between the positive output terminal and the positive feedback terminal, and a second voltage drop between the negative output terminal and the negative feedback terminal. The common-mode feedback circuit regulates a common-mode voltage between the positive and negative feedback terminals to the second common-mode voltage. In another form, an analog-to-digital converter includes a range extending logic circuit to extend the range of a ring oscillator based analog-to-digital converter.

A semiconductor device includes an analog-digital converter circuit. The analog-digital converter circuit includes a delay cell array that includes n-number (n is a natural number of 2 or more) of serially-coupled delay cells, receives a reference clock signal, and utilizes an analog input signal as the power supply voltage for delay cells in each stage, and an encoder that encodes the output signal of the delay cells in each stage of the delay cell array. The n number of delay cells include a delay quantity weighted for each delay cell, and the encoder encodes the output signal of the delay cell in each stage of the delay cell array by weighting corresponding to the number of delay cell stages. The delay cells output signal without changing polarity of inputted signals.

An analog-to-digital converter includes: a voltage-current converter receiving an analog input voltage, generating a first digital signal from the analog input voltage, and outputting a residual current remaining after the first digital signal; a current-time converter converting the residual current into a current time in a time domain; and a time-digital converter receiving the residual time, and generating a second digital signal from the residual time, wherein the first digital signal and the second digital signal are sequences of digital codes representing respective signal levels of the analog input voltage.

A time capture circuit can measure time between edges of a logic input signal. A delay line generates consecutive increasingly delayed replicas of the logic input signal. A free running counter is clocked by a counter clock signal corresponding to an external clock signal multiplied by a clock scale factor. A counter value capture circuit captures the counter value upon occurrence of an edge in the input signal, outputs a captured counter value, and issues a trigger signal. A decoder determines a decoded value based on values of the input signal and of the plurality of consecutive increasingly replicas when the trigger signal is issued and computes a capture value as the difference of the captured counter value logical left shifted by a first scale factor and the decoded value logical right shifted by a second scale factor.

Techniques are described related to digital radio control, partitioning, and operation. The various techniques described herein enable high-frequency local oscillator signal generation and frequency multiplication using radio-frequency (RF) digital to analog converters (RFDACs). The use of these components and others described throughout this disclosure allow for the realization of various improvements. For example, digital, analog, and hybrid beamforming control are implemented and the newly-enabled digital radio architecture partitioning enables radio components to be pushed to the radio head, allowing for the omission of high frequency cables and/or connectors.

A method of using an analog-to-digital converter system includes receiving a sampled voltage corresponding to one of an input voltage and a known voltage, causing preamplifiers to generate output signals based on the sampled voltage, generating first and second signals based on the output signals, causing a delay-resolving delay-to-digital backend to generate a single-bit digital signal representing an order of receipt of the first and second signals, and adjusting one or more of the preamplifiers based on the digital signal. The disclosure also relates to a system which includes a voltage-to-delay frontend and a delay-resolving backend, and to a method which includes causing a delay comparator to generate a single-bit digital signal representing an order of receipt of input signals, causing the comparator to transmit a residue delay signal to a succeeding comparator, and transmitting a signal to adjust one or more of the preamplifiers based on the digital signal.

Techniques are described related to digital radio control, partitioning, and operation. The various techniques described herein enable high-frequency local oscillator signal generation and frequency multiplication using radio-frequency (RF) digital to analog converters (RFDACs). The use of these components and others described throughout this disclosure allow for the realization of various improvements. For example, digital, analog, and hybrid beamforming control are implemented and the newly-enabled digital radio architecture partitioning enables radio components to be pushed to the radio head, allowing for the omission of high frequency cables and/or connectors.