A multi-stage switched capacitor circuit and an operation method thereof are provided. The multi-stage switched capacitor circuit includes a first operational stage, a second operational stage and a third operational stage that are serially connected in order. Each operational stage operates in a sample phase or a hold phase and generates a detection signal indicating an end of the hold phase. The operation method of the multi-stage switched capacitor circuit includes: controlling the second operational stage to operate in the hold phase when the detection signal of the first operational stage indicates the end of the hold phase of the first operational stage, and the detection signal of the third operational stage indicates the end of the hold phase of the third operational stage.

A LIDAR device includes an input node, an output node, and a sample-and-convert circuit. The input node receives a photodetector signal, and the output node generates an output signal indicating a light intensity value of the photodetector signal. The sample-and-convert circuit includes a number of detection channels coupled in parallel between the input node and the output node. In some aspects, each of the detection channels may be configured to sample a value of the photodetector signal during the sample mode and to hold the sampled value during the convert mode using a single capacitor.

An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) having an input operable to receive an input voltage, V.sub.IN, and an output operable to output a digital code representative of V.sub.IN, the ADC including: a voltage-to-delay circuit having an input and an output, the input of the voltage-to-delay circuit coupled to the input of the ADC; a folding circuit having an input and an output, the input of the folding circuit coupled to the output of the voltage-to-delay circuit; and a time delay-based analog-to-digital converter backend having an input and a digital code output coupled to the output of the ADC, the input of the time delay-based analog-to-digital converter backend coupled to the output of the folding circuit.

A LIDAR device includes an input node, an output node, and a sample-and-convert circuit. The input node receives a photodetector signal, and the output node generates an output signal indicating a light intensity value of the photodetector signal. The sample-and-convert circuit includes a number of detection channels coupled in parallel between the input node and the output node. In some aspects, each of the detection channels may be configured to sample a value of the photodetector signal during the sample mode and to hold the sampled value during the convert mode using a single capacitor.

An analog-to-digital converting apparatus includes a first stage converter which performs a first analog-to-digital conversion on an input analog signal during a first stage period, a second stage converter which receives a first residue from the first stage converter amplified by a first gain and which performs a second analog-to-digital conversion during a second stage period, and a recombination logic circuit which combines a first output signal from the first stage converter and a second output signal from the second stage converter into an output digital signal that corresponds to the input analog signal. The second stage converter generates a second stage feedback signal obtained by amplifying the second output signal by the first gain during a first sub-cycle in the second stage period, and generates a second output signal of a second sub-cycle subsequent to the first sub-cycle based on the second stage feedback signal.

A device having a capacitive sampling structure that allows for removal of sampling noise can be implemented in a variety of applications. Noise cancellation can be achieved by storing on an auto-zero capacitor a scaled replica of kT/C noise by a mechanism of correlated sampling. In an example embodiment, a set of switches can be arranged such that, in switching, scaled thermal noise, generated in an acquisition phase in which a voltage signal is input to an input capacitor structure, is captured on an output capacitor structure and, in a conversion phase, the captured thermal noise is cancelled or compensated from an output of the output capacitor structure.

A capacitor-based digital-to-analog-converter produces a level-shifted analog outputs by precharging respective sets of output-generating capacitors to different applied potentials and then floating a common output of the sets of capacitors such that charge is redistributed among the capacitors through the common output to yield, across all the capacitors, a uniform precharge voltage that falls between the different applied potentials.

A method for testing an A/D converter with a built-in diagnostic circuit with a user supplied variable input voltage includes generating a charge by a binary-weighted capacitor array responsive to an external voltage and a user specified code. The method further includes applying the charge to a first input of a voltage comparator and applying a bias voltage to a second input of the voltage comparator, and generating, by the voltage comparator, a comparison voltage responsive to the applied charge and the bias voltage. The method also includes applying the comparison voltage to an input of a successive approximation register and generating, by the successive approximation register, an approximate digital code responsive to the comparison voltage. The method also includes determining if at least one bit of the approximate digital code fails to toggle independent of adjacent bits.

An example residue generation arrangement for a continuous time or hybrid ADC includes a delay circuit having a cascade of analog delay sections, each section to provide a respective delay to an analog input signal, thus providing a delayed analog input signal at the output of the delay circuit. The delay circuit further includes a selector, configured to select an input or an output of one of the delay sections to provide as an input signal to a quantizer of a feedforward path. The quantizer may generate a digital input to a DAC of the feedforward path based on the output of the selector, and the DAC may generate a feedforward path analog output based on the digital signal generated by the quantizer. The arrangement further includes a summation node, configured to generate a residue signal based on the delayed analog input and the feedforward path analog output.

An example residue generation arrangement for a continuous time or hybrid ADC includes a delay circuit having a cascade of analog delay sections, each section to provide a respective delay to an analog input signal, thus providing a delayed analog input signal at the output of the delay circuit. The delay circuit further includes a selector, configured to select an input or an output of one of the delay sections to provide as an input signal to a quantizer of a feedforward path. The quantizer may generate a digital input to a DAC of the feedforward path based on the output of the selector, and the DAC may generate a feedforward path analog output based on the digital signal generated by the quantizer. The arrangement further includes a summation node, configured to generate a residue signal based on the delayed analog input and the feedforward path analog output.