Patent ID: 8934524
Filing Date: 2015-01-13
Classification: H03K,H04B

Abstract:
1. A method for detecting, through an electronic detection device, a threshold crossing instant at which an electrical signal crosses a threshold, comprising: defining by a clock signal a sequence of discrete clock instants, such that two consecutive clock instants of said sequence are spaced in time from one another by a clock period; sampling the electrical signal with a sampling period equal to the clock period, at a plurality of sampling instants belonging to said sequence of clock instants; detecting a first sampling instant and a subsequent consecutive second sampling instant, such that in one of said first and second sampling instants the sampled signal value has a first signal value lower than, or equal to, the threshold, and in the other one of said first and second sampling instants the sampled signal value has a second signal value higher than the threshold; calculating, on the basis of said first signal value, second signal value and threshold, a first time interval, indicative of a temporal distance between the threshold crossing instant and the first sampling instant; setting a reference electrical signal having a reference amplitude representative of the first time interval relative to a reference scale; providing the reference electrical signal to the input of a comparison module comprised in the electronic detection device; generating, by the comparison module, a threshold crossing detection signal at a threshold crossing detection instant delayed by a second time interval relative to a reference instant belonging to the clock instant sequence, said second time interval depending on the reference amplitude; calibrating the reference scale of the reference amplitude in such a way that said second time interval is substantially equal in length to said first time interval.