A differential pair of FETs forms a sensor circuit coupled to a differential current reading circuit that includes a current to voltage converter and an analog to digital converter. An ESD protection circuit interposed between the sensor circuit and the differential current reading circuit adds spurious currents to a differential sensor current output by the sensor circuit. A circuit before the ESD protection circuit switches the sign of the differential sensor current according to a period of complementary phase clock signals which correspond to a sampling interval of the analog to digital converter. A circuit selects signals depending on the value of the period of the phase clock signals to eliminate the spurious currents.

Systems and methods are provided for architectures for an analog feedback class D modulator that increase the power efficiency of the class D modulator. In particular, systems and methods are provided for an analog feedback class D modulator having a digital feed-forward loop. The digital feed-forward loop allows for removal of signal content from an input to an analog-to-digital converter, such that the ADC processes just noise and/or error. Using the techniques discussed herein, the loop filter is low power as it processes error content but not signal content.

In accordance with an embodiment, a delta-sigma modulator includes: an analog loop filter comprising an outer portion and an inner portion having an input coupled to the outer portion; a quantizer coupled to an output of the inner portion of the analog loop filter; an outer feedback path coupled between an output of the quantizer and an input to the outer portion of the analog loop filter; and a compensation filter coupled between an output of the quantizer and an input of the inner portion of the analog loop filter. The compensation filter has a transfer function configured to correct for an effect of excess loop delay (ELD) on the delta-sigma modulator.

Switching circuits controllable to force an input into a circuit and to sense a responsively produced output in multiple ways to produce different combinations of positive and negative polarities of a desired signal and of sources of offsets and 1/f noise. The switching circuits are controlled in a non-ordered time sequence of different combinations of positive and negative polarities of the sources of the offsets and 1/f noise that spreads their energy to a frequency range above the desired signal frequency band. The non-ordered time sequence leaves the polarity of the desired signal unchanged. Uncorrelated delta-sigma modulators may generate the control signal. A DSP processes a resulting spectrum of a digital domain version of the sensed output to measure residual offsets and 1/f noise and adds to an input present at the DSMs a signal equal in magnitude and opposite in sign to the measured residual offsets and 1/f noise.

A communication unit (300, 400, 500) is described that includes at least one antenna (302, 402, 502); a plurality of radio frequency (RF) circuits (304, 310, 404, 410) respectively coupled to at least one antenna (302, 402, 502); at least one sigma-delta modulator (316, 416, 616, 816) comprising a number of stages, each stage comprising at least one signal-feedforward coefficient (603, 604, 605), a filter and a feedback gain element, the at least one sigma-delta modulator (316, 416, 616, 816) coupled to the plurality of RF circuits (304, 310, 404, 410) and configured to perform sigma-delta modulation; and a controller (340, 440, 640, 840) operably coupled to the at least one sigma-delta modulator (316, 416, 616, 816). The at least one sigma-delta modulator (316, 416, 616, 816) comprises an input (315, 415, 602, 801, 802, 902) configured to receive multiple multi-phase input signals and the controller (340, 440, 640, 840) is configured to adjust the at least one signal-feedforward coefficient (603, 604, 605) of the at least one sigma-delta modulator (316, 416, 616, 816) when combining the multiple multi-phase input signals.

The present invention relates to an analog-to-digital converter and electronic device comprising the same.

According to the invention, the ADC comprises a comparator comprising a first input for receiving an input signal and a second input for receiving a feedback signal, the comparator being configured to output a comparison signal in dependence of a difference between the input signal and the feedback signal. The ADC further comprises a triggered pulse generator configured for outputting a digital pulse signal, the pulse generator being configured to generate a pulse in said digital pulse signal in dependence of a clock signal when the comparison signal exceeds a first threshold. The ADC also comprises a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for converting the digital pulse signal into an analog signal, and a low-pass filter for filtering the analog signal and for providing the filtered analog signal to the comparator as the feedback signal.

A delta-sigma modulator comprising: a first loop filter for filtering a first signal to a second signal, a second loop filter for filtering a third signal, a comparator, a register coupled to the comparator, a first capacitor bank and a second capacitor bank parallelly coupled between the second loop filter and the comparator, a first path causing a delayed signal to be linearly combined with an input signal to form the first signal, and a second path causing the delayed signal to be linearly combined with the second signal to form the third signal, wherein the delayed signal may be formed by delaying an output signal of the register.

Various embodiments relate to delta-sigma loop filters with input feedforward. A delta-sigma loop filter may include a first integrator and a quantizer having an input coupled to an output of the first integrator. The delta-sigma loop filter may further include a first summing node having an output coupled to an input of the first integrator. Further, the delta-sigma loop filter may include a feedforward path from an input of the delta-sigma loop filter to a first input of the first summing node. The delta-sigma loop filter may also include a first feedback path from an output of the quantizer to a second input of the first summing node.

Various embodiments relate to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The ADC may include a first channel including a first delta-sigma loop filter and a second channel including a second delta-sigma loop filter. Each of the first delta-sigma loop filter and the second delta-sigma loop filter may include a first integrator and a quantizer having an input coupled to an output of the first integrator. Each of the first delta-sigma loop filter and the second delta-sigma loop filter may also include a first summing node having an output coupled to an input of the first integrator, and a feedforward path from an input of the delta-signal loop filter to a first input of the first summing node. Further, each of the first delta-sigma loop filter and the second delta-sigma loop filter may include a first feedback path from an output of the quantizer to a second input of the first summing node.

Described is an apparatus which comprises: a first integrator to receive an input signal and to generate a first output; a second integrator to receive the first output or a version of the first output and to generate a second output; and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to quantize the second output into a digital representation, the ADC including a detection circuit to detect an overload condition in the second output.