The present invention relates to the realization of an ADC by using a one shot time cell as an analog-to-time converter and a time-to-digital converter. The present invention relates in general, to the design and Integrated Circuit (IC) implementation of a fully-digital fully-synthesizable, delay-line analog-to-digital converter (DL-ADC). The present invention is specifically relevant for power management applications where the silicon area of the controller is of key importance. The design of the ADC is based on the approach of delay cells string to reduce design complexity and the resultant of the silicon area.

Method for encoding analog signal into time intervals wherein a generation of time intervals using a time encoding machine. A signal of a constant value is held during a generated time interval on a time encoding machine input by the use of a sample-and-hold circuit, while the constant value of the signal held during the generated time interval represents an instantaneous value of the analog signal at the end of a generation of a previous time interval. Apparatus for encoding analog signal into time intervals comprising a time encoding machine, and a sample-and-hold circuit. The signal is provided to an input of the sample-and-hold circuit, whose output is connected to an output of the time encoding machine. The output of the time encoding machine is connected to an output of the apparatus, and to a control input of the sample-and-hold circuit.

The present disclosure relates to circuitry comprising: digital circuitry configured to generate a digital output signal; and monitoring circuitry configured to monitor a supply voltage to the digital circuitry and to output a control signal for controlling operation of the digital circuitry, wherein the control signal is based on the supply voltage.

The present disclosure relates to circuitry comprising: digital circuitry configured to generate a digital output signal; and monitoring circuitry configured to monitor a supply voltage to the digital circuitry and to output a control signal for controlling operation of the digital circuitry, wherein the control signal is based on the supply voltage.

A system having: a power switching circuit providing a drive current to a load, and having: a power source; first and second serially connected switches convert DC power from the power source into AC current to form the drive current, or vice versa; a first high-bandwidth current sensor circuit measures high-side current pulses through the first switch and provides a first analog signal, proportional to the high-side pulses; a second high-bandwidth current sensor circuit measures low-side current pulses through the second switch and provides a second analog signal is proportional to the low-side pulses; a signal processing device coupled to the first and second current sensor circuits performs steps of: converting the first analog signal to a first digital signal and the second analog signal to a second digital signal; and reconstructing the drive current and obtaining its cycle average values from the first and second digital signals.

An apparatus as discussed herein can be configured to include a delay line analog-to-digital converter operable to convert an analog error voltage into a digital error voltage signal. Additionally, the apparatus can be configured to include an integrator function as well as a digital to analog converter. The integrator function is operable to produce a digital value representative of an analog input voltage, the digital value adjusted based on samples of the digital error voltage signal generated by the delay line analog-to-digital converter. The digital-to-analog converter operative to convert the digital value received from the integrator function into a second analog voltage, the analog error voltage being a difference between the input voltage and the second analog voltage.

The present application provides an all-digital multi-phase DC-DC controller. The digital DC-DC controller includes time-based analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) for converting analog voltage signals into digital-domain signals so as to benefit from gate length scaling without limited by the low voltage swing. Also, the DC-DC controller further includes a digital control circuit and a time-based modulator. The digital control circuit can control the time-based modulator in a digital domain, thereby reducing the affection caused by process, voltage and temperature (PVT) variation. Also, the time-based modulator can adjust the timing of the PWM signals and avoid the performance degradation caused by circuit mismatch. Since the digital control circuit can be fully synthesizable, it allows implementations in all kinds of digital CMOS processes with a small chip area.

A successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) may be used to generate a first digital data of N-bit and a second digital data of N-bit for an analog data. When the second digital data and the first digital data include a first sequence of most significant bits (MSBs) having same values, a third digital data of N-bit may be generated for the analog data using the SAR ADC in a partial mode. In the partial mode, the SAR ADC is configured to skip determining a second sequence of MSBs of the third digital data, and only determine remaining bits of the third digital data. When the second digital data and the first digital data do not include the first sequence of MSBs having same values, the SAR ADC operates in a full mode to determine every bit of the N-bit third digital data.

A successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) may be used to generate a first digital data of N-bit and a second digital data of N-bit for an analog data. When the second digital data and the first digital data include a first sequence of most significant bits (MSBs) having same values, a third digital data of N-bit may be generated for the analog data using the SAR ADC in a partial mode. In the partial mode, the SAR ADC is configured to skip determining a second sequence of MSBs of the third digital data, and only determine remaining bits of the third digital data. When the second digital data and the first digital data do not include the first sequence of MSBs having same values, the SAR ADC operates in a full mode to determine every bit of the N-bit third digital data.