Abstract:
An offset is used to correct the output of a charge coupled device (CCD). The correction to the offset is determined by an exponential curve which allows for greater correction when error is large, and little correction when the error is small. The exponential curve may be viewed as a sequence of connected linear segments, and the correction to the offset may be determined by the slope of the segment to which the error maps. As the slopes at large errors are steep, the slope is correspondingly high, and the offset converges towards the correct value quickly. Power consumption is optimized by implementing the offset generation circuit using capacitor charge sharing principles.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATION(S)  
       [0001]    The present application is related to the commonly assigned co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No.: 09/703,471, entitled, “Offset Correction to The Output of a Charge Coupled Device”, filed on Oct. 31, 2000, and is incorporated in its entirety herewith (hereafter “RELATED APPLICATION 1”). 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    The present invention relates to charge coupled devices (CCD) typically used to capture color pictures in digital form, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for correcting the offset applied to the output of the CCDs.  
           [0004]    2. Related Art  
           [0005]    Charge coupled devices (CCDs) are often used to capture images received in the form of light. A CCD typically contains several pixels, with each pixel holding an amount of charge proportionate to the intensity of incident light and the length of time the light is allowed to fall on the pixel. The charge can be later translated to a voltage level and/or digital data for further processing and/or storing (in mass non-volatile storage). CCDs thus find application in devices such as digital cameras and scanners as is well known in the relevant arts.  
           [0006]    A correction (termed “offset correction”) is often applied to the output (i.e., voltage or digital data in the above paragraph) of a CCD typically to compensate for (or eliminate) undesirable components which may be present in the CCD output. For example, the charge generated by a CCD should ideally be entirely generated by the incident light but other phenomenon such as thermally generated electrons add to the charge.  
           [0007]    Such additions are undesirable, for example, because a later reproduced image may be brighter than that represented by the light incident on the CCD. Accordingly, it is desirable that the undesirable components be eliminated, and the corresponding correction is termed as offset correction. The extent to which a correction is applied, is referred to as an offset, and the act of applying the offset to the CCD output may be referred to as offset correction. The difference between the applied offset and the accurate offset (which would have eliminated the undesirable components entirely) may be referred as an error in the offset correction.  
           [0008]    To facilitate the removal of such undesirable components, CCDs often include black pixels which are shielded from light when the active pixels are exposed to light. The charge in the black pixels may be deemed to represent the undesirable components to some extent, and accordingly the offset to the CCD charge is computed based on the charge present in the black pixels. The offset is thus subtracted from the CCD outputs to generate the true image (close to the image represented by the incident light).  
           [0009]    In one approach described in RELATED APPLICATION 1 noted above, the offset to be generated is indicated using two digital to analog converters (DACs) termed as coarse DAC (CDAC) and fine DAC (FDAC) respectively. The output voltage of the CDAC is subtracted from a voltage level representing the charge output of a CCD, and the resulting signal is amplified before further correction is performed based on the output of the CDAC. By choosing two DACs (instead of a single DAC), the CCD output may be corrected to a single bit precision of an ADC (used for digitizing the CCD output voltage), while minimizing the power and space consumption.  
           [0010]    In effect, the output of CDAC effects correction in coarse steps (due to correction prior to amplification) and the output of FDAC effects correction in fine steps. Thus, the operation of CDAC leads to fast convergence to accurate offset correction while the FDAC allows correction potentially up to a least significant bit of a analog to digital converter (ADC) later used to convert the corrected CCD output to a digital representation. The correction may be switched between coarse correction mode and fine correction mode depending on the extent of further correction determined as the black pixels of the CCD output are continually examined.  
           [0011]    One problem with such switching between two modes of correction is that the error in correction may suddenly jump as a result of the switch. A typical reason for such a jump is that the two DACs may generate different analog offsets for the same intended offset due to the inherent non-ideal implementations. The increase in error is undesirable at least in that it may manifest as a line (or a band) in a later reproduced image. Such display artifacts are generally undesirable. Accordingly, what is needed is a method and apparatus which provide for offset correction which converges rapidly, provides for accurate correction to a desired degree, while avoiding (or minimizing) display artifacts.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0012]    According to an aspect of the present invention, the correction to be applied to a previously applied offset is determined by an exponential curve which allows for a correction proportionate to an error in the offset (i.e., greater correction when error is large, and little correction when the error is small). As the correction is more when the errors are large, the offset may converge towards a correct value quickly.  
           [0013]    In one embodiment, a correlated double sampler (CDS) receives the charge output of a charge coupled device (CCD), and corrects the output by an offset. The voltage generated by the CCD is amplified by a gain amplifier, and the amplified voltage is digitized by an analog to digital converter (ADC). An error determination circuit determines the error in the offset by examining the output corresponding to the black pixels. A correction circuit determines the correction to be applied to the offset by mapping the error to the exponential curve, and then generates a corrected offset value based on the determined correction.  
           [0014]    According to another aspect of the present invention, the exponential curve is viewed as a sequence of connected linear segments, and the correction to the offset may be determined by the slope of the segment to which the error maps. As the slopes at large errors are steep, the slope is correspondingly high, and the offset converges towards the correct value quickly. Thus, the error is mapped to one of the segments and the correction is determined according to the slope. In an implementation, a look-up table generates an identifier of the segment, and a digital to analog converter (DAC) generates a corresponding correction value.  
           [0015]    One more aspect of the present invention optimizes power consumption and space requirement by implementing the offset generation circuit using charge sharing in capacitors. One embodiment of the offset generation circuit contains a first capacitor and a first transistor. The source terminal of the transistor is connected to a constant current source, and the gate terminal is connected to the first capacitor. The offset generation circuit further includes a first block containing a plurality of sets, with each set in turn containing a second capacitor. The source terminal is connected to the second capacitor by a first switch. The first capacitor and the gate terminal is connected to the second capacitor by a second switch.  
           [0016]    The first switch is closed and the second switch is opened to cause the second capacitor to be charged by a source voltage and the first capacitor to be charged by a gate voltage. The first switch is opened and the second switch is closed to short the first and second capacitors, whereby the change in voltage across the first capacitor is given by the equation: V SG /((1+(C1/C2)), wherein V SG  represents the voltage across the source and gate terminals, and C1 and C2 respectively represent the capacitances of the first and second capacitors.  
           [0017]    The capacitance of each of the second capacitors is chosen to enable different set to provide different changes, and the first and second switches corresponding to all the sets except a set designed to provide the desired change are maintained in an open position such that the desired change is attained on the first capacitor. By such a design, the voltage level on the first capacitor is continually updated as the black pixels of a CCD output are received. Thus, the voltage level on the first capacitor represents the corrected offset value.  
           [0018]    Another feature enables the voltage on the first capacitor to be corrected positively and negatively (i.e., in both polarities). The first transistor may be implemented as an NMOS transistor. The offset generation circuit may further contain a PMOS transistor and a second block. The source terminal of the PMOS transistor also is connected to another constant current source and the gate terminal of the PMOS transistor is connected to the first capacitor.  
           [0019]    The second block may have identical components as the first block, wherein the first and second switches of only one of the sets in both the first and second blocks is operated to be in a closed position such that the voltage level on the first capacitor is changed by one polarity if the operated set is in the first block and by another polarity if the operated set is in the second block. Thus, a decoder may cause only one of the sets to be operated depending on the sign and magnitude of the correction. As the offset generation circuit may be implemented in the form of capacitors, current sources and switches, the electrical power and space requirements may be minimized. 
       
    
    
       [0020]    Further features and advantages of the invention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the invention, are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.  
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0021]    The present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example environment in which the present invention can be implemented;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a method in accordance with the present invention;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the details of an embodiment of an analog front end provided in accordance with the present invention;  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 4 is a graph of a curve (“convergence curve”) illustrating an example goal at which errors in offset may need to be corrected;  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 5A is a table containing the discrete data points on the convergence curve of FIG. 4;  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 5B is a table depicting the slopes (which determines the correction step size) corresponding to the linear segments formed by adjacent data points of FIG. 5A;  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 5C is a table showing a mapping of the digital correction step sizes of FIG. 5B to the analog voltage corrections to be applied to a CDS;  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 5D is a table illustrating the manner in which the number of required analog voltage levels are optimized due to the minimum offset correction sought to be attained in the chosen example scenario;  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a DAC illustrating the details of an embodiment thereof;  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 7A is a block diagram of a step generator circuit and FIG. 7B a related timing diagram illustrating an embodiment for generating a correction to a previous offset; and  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram illustrating an approach for efficiently generating a corrected offset in an integrated circuit. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0033]    1. Overview and Discussion of the Invention  
         [0034]    According to an aspect of the present invention, the extent to which an offset is to be incremented (or decremented) is determined based on an exponential curve which allows for the offset to be adjusted proportionate to the error. The curve may be designed consistent with various criteria as a designer wishes. For example, the curve may be chosen to allow a desired rate at which the CCD output is corrected.  
         [0035]    In one embodiment described below, correction to the offset is determined by the slope of the exponential curve at a point to which the error maps. To simplify the determination of the slope, the curve is viewed as a sequence of discrete connected lines, and the correction to the offset is determined by the slope (gradient) of the specific line on which the error falls. Due to the fact that the curve has a steeper slope at points of high error, the correction to the offset (the extent to which incremented) is also large when the error is large.  
         [0036]    Several aspects of the invention are described below with reference to example environments for illustration. It should be understood that numerous specific details, relationships, and methods are set forth to provide a full understanding of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art, however, will readily recognize that the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, etc. In other instances, well-known structures or operations are not shown in detail to avoid obscuring the invention.  
         [0037]    2. Example Environment  
         [0038]    [0038]FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example environment in which the present invention can be implemented. There is shown the light from image  110  being allowed pass through device  190  (such as a digital camera or a scanner). The output of device can be used for further processing, printing or storing, etc., as described below in further detail.  
         [0039]    With respect to device  190 , the light from image  110  is shown being focused on CCD  130  by lens  120 . CCD  130  contains several pixels which are charged proportionate to the product of the incident light intensity and the time of exposure to the light. The charge is converted into voltage in a known way and transferred to analog front-end (AFE)  140 . CCD  130  is an example embodiment of an image sensor.  
         [0040]    AFE  140  converts the received voltages into digital values, and transmits the digital values to post processor  150 . AFE  140  may employ techniques such as correlated double sampling (which are well known in the relevant arts) in the course of generating the digital values. AFE  140  receives voltage values corresponding to both dark pixels and active pixels and performs offset correction in accordance with several aspects of the present invention as described below in further detail.  
         [0041]    Post processor  150  processes the digital values received from AFE  140 , generally to enhance the quality of image represented by the digital values and/or to convert the data into suitable format for storing. The resulting output data may be used in several ways, for example, viewed/edited by computer system  170 -A, stored in floppy disk  170 -B, printed on a printer  170 -C or transferred to video player  170 -D.  
         [0042]    However, as noted in the background section above in greater detail, a robust offset correction approach may be needed to ensure that the reproduced images (e.g., in  170 -A through  170 -D) accurately represent image  110 . An example offset correction approach implemented within AFE  140  is described below.  
         [0043]    3. Method  
         [0044]    [0044]FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a method for offset correction implemented in accordance with the present invention. The method is described with reference to components of device  190  of FIG. 1 for illustration only. The method begins in step  201 , in which control immediately passes to step  210 . In step  210 , the offset to be applied to the output of CCD  130  is initialized to a value. The initialization may be either provided under external control or be pre-set.  
         [0045]    In step  230 , the output of CCD  130  is corrected according to the offset value. The resulting pixel elements are passed to post-processor  150 . In step  240 , AFE  140  computes an error in the offset based on the black pixels received from CCD  130 . That is, the error is typically proportionate to the extent of difference of received black pixel values from value corresponding to no-light (black/dark) situation.  
         [0046]    In step  260 , the correction to be applied to the offset is determined by using an exponential curve which allows for greater degree of correction when the error is higher. In an embodiment described below, the curve is characterized by the maximum correction sought to be permitted, the desired minimum correction, and the rate at which the correction should approach the minimum value.  
         [0047]    In step  280 , the offset is modified according to the correction computed in step  260 . Control then passes to step  230 , in which the CCD output is corrected according to the corrected offset value. The loop of steps  230 - 280  can continue as dark pixels are received from CCD  130 .  
         [0048]    Due to the exponential nature of the curve, the correction is rapid when the error is large, yet the solution allows corrections of sufficiently small magnitude. The speed of convergence can be controlled by the appropriate design of the exponential curve. As described below with reference to an example embodiment of FIG. 3, AFE  140  can be implemented while minimizing power and space consumption.  
         [0049]    4. Analog Front End  
         [0050]    [0050]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of AFE  140  illustrating the details (in one embodiment) as relevant to an understanding of several aspects of the present invention. AFE  140  is shown containing correlated double sampler circuit (CDS)  310 , programmable gain amplifier (PGA)  320 , analog to digital converter (ADC)  330 , digital gain  340 , adder  350 , black level register  355 , hot pixel filter  360 , gain divider  370 , look-up table  380 , and DAC  390 . Each component is described below in further detail.  
         [0051]    CDS  310  receives voltage inputs from CCD  130 , and performs a correlated double sampling operation. In addition, CDS  310  performs offset correction by subtracting (in analog domain) the offset received from DAC  390  from each of the pixel analog values. The output of CDS  310  represents the error in offset when the analog signals corresponding to dark pixels are processed.  
         [0052]    The voltage output of CCD  310  is amplified by PGA  320  by a gain specified typically by a designer depending on image  110 . ADC  330  digitizes the amplified voltage signal to generate pixel digital elements. The pixel digital elements may again be amplified by digital gain  340 . CDS  310 , PGA  320 , ADC  330 , and digital gain  340  may be implemented in a known way.  
         [0053]    Hot pixel filter  360  may ignore ‘hot pixels’ (which are stuck at a high value due to, for example, manufacturing defects). In an embodiment, a value corresponding to an adjacent pixel may be substituted for each hot pixel. Adder  350  subtracts the black level value stored in black level register  355  from each pixel digital element received from digital gain  340 . As is well known in the relevant arts, a designer may wish to set black/dark level to a non-zero value, and the corresponding value is subtracted from each pixel digital value.  
         [0054]    Gain divider  370  divides the output of adder  350  by the aggregate gain of PGA  320  and digital gain  340 . By performing such division, the error value received by look-up table  380  may be made to be independent of any gain performed in digital gain  340  and PGA  320 .  
         [0055]    Look-up table  380  receives the absolute value of the error and causes DAC  390  to generate an offset value to effect any further offset corrections necessary in the processing of the image signal received from CCD  130 . In an embodiment described below, DAC  390  keeps track of an offset applied for the previous line of an image, look-up table  380  provides an indication of the further correction to the offset, and DAC  390  generates the corrected offset analog signal.  
         [0056]    Look-up table  380  and DAC  390  together form an example offset generation circuit implemented according to several aspects of the present invention. As noted above, CDS  310  performs offset correction based on the analog offset generated by DAC  390 . The operation of example embodiments of look-up table  380  and DAC  390  will be clearer by first appreciating the manner in which the correction to offset is determined.  
         [0057]    5. Determining Correction to Present Offset  
         [0058]    As noted above, the correction to the present offset is determined based on an exponential curve. The manner in which the exponential curve can be designed and the manner in which correction values (to offset) for different error values can be computed is described now. For illustration, it is assumed that the design requirements are (1) maximum error (at CDS  310 ) for which the curve needs to be designed: 100 mV (milli-volts); (2) final desired error in the offset value (at the output of gain divider  360 ): 1/100th of an ADC&#39;s least significant bit (LSB); and (3) desired time in which the error should converge: 1000 pixels. The settled output error (least correction possible) is chosen as 1/100 of ADC  330 &#39;s LSB to account for the fact that the input signal may be amplified up to 100 times (corresponding to a gain of 39.5 dB in PGA  320  and digital gain  340 ).  
         [0059]    The error convergence curve corresponding to the goals is depicted in FIG. 4. In one embodiment, the convergence is attained by determining the offset to correction to be equal to the slope of the curve a point at which the error maps to. To further expedite the computation of the slope, the curve may be conveniently viewed as a series of segments (either equal or unequal), and the slope of the segment may be used to determine the degree to which a present offset is to be corrected. The manner in which curve can be broken into a sequence of connected linear segments is described below.  
         [0060]    Assuming ADC  330  is a 12 bit ADC with a peak voltage of 1.5V, each LSB of the ADC corresponds to a voltage of 375 μV (micro-volts), and 100 mV corresponds to  280  LSBs. The time constant (λ) of the exponential curve may be determined from the above design goals as follows:  
           V   out   =V   in   e   −n/λ  . . .   Equation (1) 
         [0061]    wherein V in =initial input to the system;  
         [0062]    V out =output from the system at time instance n; and  
         [0063]    λ=time constant of the exponential curve.  
         [0064]    Substituting the design goals (V out =1/100; V in =280; and n=1000) of above, we have:  
         1/100=280  e   −1000/λ  . . .   Equation (2) 
         [0065]    From Equation (2), it follows that:  
         λ≡90 . . .   Equation (3) 
         [0066]    wherein≡represents the relationship ‘approximately equals’.  
         [0067]    The output (V out ) after each 90 pixels may be given as shown in the table of FIG. 5A. To discretize the exponential curve, one may view the points of FIG. 5A as two ends of a linear segment, and the slope of the segments (using 90 pixels as a divisor/basis) may be computed. The corresponding results are shown in FIG. 5B.  
         [0068]    According to an aspect of the present invention, the slope (in LSBs of ADC  330 ) represents the desired effective correction (i.e., after amplification at PGA  320  and digital gain  340 ). For example, effective corrections of 1.9469, 0.7162 and 0.0357 (ADC  330  LSBs) are desirable for error magnitudes of 150, 80, and 4 (ADC  330  LSBs). The corrections of FIG.  5 B are also referred to as steps sizes since each number spans a range of numbers on Y-coordinates of FIG. 4.  
         [0069]    The digital step sizes of FIG. 5B need to be converted into change in voltage level in the signals generated by DAC  390 . Such a conversion generally requires an analysis of the manner in which the correction component of the offset signal is affected by different components in the path from the output of DAC  390  to the input of ADC  330 . The goal is to correct the analog offset input to CDS  310  such that the correction would result in a correction equal to the step sizes of FIG. 5B at ADC  330 .  
         [0070]    In one embodiment in which ADC  330  is designed for peak voltage of 1.5 V for a 12-bit input, the conversion is given by the equation:  
         ΔOffset=(1.5 Volts×Digital Step Size)/1024 . . .   Equation (4)  
         [0071]    Wherein Δ Offset represents the correction to the analog offset provided as an input to CDS  210 , and digital step size is shown in the second column of FIG. 5B.  
         [0072]    [0072]FIG. 5C depicts the analog corrections to offset corresponding to the digital step sizes. It may be noted that the bottom six entries have corrections which are less than the minimum possible correction of 35 μVolts. Accordingly, the errors may be added for multiple pixels, and no correction may be performed until the error accumulates to 35 μVolts. Thus, the correction corresponding to the six entries is shown as 35 μVolts in FIG. 5D. The manner in which the corrections to offset may be attained is described below with examples.  
         [0073]    [0073] 6 . Look-up Table and DAC Broadly  
         [0074]    In one embodiment, look-up table  380  is designed to receive the absolute value of the error computed by gain divider  360 , and generates a 3 digit input. Of the eight possible values, only six may be used. The six values respectively specify that further correction is as indicated in the six entries in the second column of FIG. 5D. DAC  390  may keep track of previous offset and add the correction indicated by the 3-digit input as described below.  
         [0075]    [0075]FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating the details of DAC  390  in one embodiment. DAC  390  is shown containing decoder  610 , step generators  620 - 1  through  620 - 6 , adder  650 , and previous offset  660 . Each component is described below in further detail.  
         [0076]    Previous offset  660  stores an offset value used with the previous dark pixel of the processed image. Adder  650  adds the value stored in previous offset  660  to the output generated by the selected step generators, and the resulting voltage level is stored in previous offset  660 . The value represents the offset used for subsequently received pixel values.  
         [0077]    Decoder  610  receives a 3-digit input and asserts one of the six outputs  612 - 1 A through  612 - 6 A. The corresponding step generator  620 - 1  through  620 - 6  generates the correction to offset in the form of a voltage signal. For each step generator, either the A or B input is enabled depending on whether a positive or negative sign is received from sign  395 .  
         [0078]    In response, the selected one of the step generators  620 - 1  through  620 - 6  generates a corresponding voltage level (on path  625 ) equaling one of the values indicated in the second column of FIG. 5D. The voltage has a polarity as determined by the sign received from sign  395 . An example embodiment generating the corrected offset voltage (including step generators  620 - 1  through  620 - 6 , adder  650 , and previous offset  660 ) is described below. The principle underlying the embodiment is described first.  
         [0079]    7. Principle Behind Generating Corrected Offset Voltage  
         [0080]    [0080]FIG. 7A is a circuit diagram illustrating the principle underlying the generation of a corrected offset voltage. The circuit diagram is shown containing the source of MOSFET  720  being driven by constant current source  710 . The gate of MOSFET  720  is shown connected to capacitor C1, and also to capacitor C2 by switch  740 . The same end of capacitor C2 is also connected to the source of MOSFET  720  by switch  730 . The second ends of capacitors C1 and C2, and the drain terminal of MOSFET  720  are grounded.  
         [0081]    The switches  730  and  740  may be operated according to the clock signals shown in FIG. 7B. Switch  730  is closed (and  740  open) when signal  790  is at high logical level (e.g., between time points  791  and  792 ), with the result that capacitors C1 and C2 are respectively charged by voltage levels at the gate and source terminals of MOSFET  720 .  
         [0082]    Switch  740  is closed when signal  780  is at a high logical level (e.g., between time points  781  and  782 ). As may be appreciated the two capacitors C1 and C2 are shorted in the corresponding time durations. The effect of the switches being open and closed is analyzed according to the following equations.  
         [0083]    Assume that two capacitors with capacitances C1 and C2 are respectively charged to voltages V1 and V1 in the time duration between  791  and  792 . When the two capacitors are shorted between time duration  781  and  782 , then the net charge (Qtotal) on them becomes:  
         Qtotal= C 1 V 1+ C 2 V 2 . . .   Equation (5) 
         [0084]    The final voltage on the connected capacitors equals:  
           V =(Qtotal)/( C 1+ C 2) . . .   Equation (6) 
         [0085]    The voltage increment on capacitor C1 equals:  
           V−V 1 ΔV 1=( V 1 −V 1)/((1+( C 1 /C 2))=V SG /((1+( C 1 /C 2)) . . .   Equation (7) 
         [0086]    wherein V SG  represents the voltage across the source and gate terminals.  
         [0087]    As is well known, the voltage V SG  across the source and gate terminals is constant when the source terminal is driven by a constant current source (which may be implemented in a known way). Accordingly, the change in voltage level across capacitor C1 is determined only by the ratio of C1/C2.  
         [0088]    According to an aspect of the present invention, C1 is shared by all the step generators  620 - 1  through  620 - 6 , and the value of C2 is selected with different capacitances to achieve the desired step size (or correction voltage). In one embodiment, V SG  equals 0.9 Volts, C1 equals 250 pF (pico farads), and C2 equals 10 fF (femto farads) to achieve a step of magnitude 35 μV. C2 can have values of 795 fF, 292 fF, 107 fF, 39 fF, and 15 fF corresponding to step sizes of 2852, 1049, 386, 142, and 52.3 μVs shown in FIG. 5D. An embodiment implementing step generators  620 - 1  through  620 - 6  is described below in further detail.  
         [0089]    [0089] 8 . Step Generators  
         [0090]    [0090]FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating the manner in which step generators  620 - 1  through  620 - 6  are implemented in an embodiment of the present invention. The diagram is shown containing capacitor  810  (shared by all six step generators), PMOS transistor  820 , NMOS transistor  830 , constant current sources  840  and  850 , and several components ending with A in one related block (“block A”) and several other components ending with B in another related block (“block B”). All components of FIG. 8 are described below in further detail.  
         [0091]    It may be noted that the components of block A can be identical to the components of block B. Block A is operated when correction sought to be attained is positive and block B is operated otherwise. Only the components of block A are described for conciseness. In addition, block A is shown containing six sets of components, with each set generating the voltage for a step. The sets differ in the capacitances of capacitors  860 - 1 A through  860 - 6 A, with each capacitor (as described above with reference to C2 in FIG. 7A) being designed to generate a corresponding step size.  
         [0092]    Switches  880 - 1 A and  890 - 1 A are operated when line  612 - 1 A is selected. Switches  880 - 1 B and  890 - 1 B are operated when line  612 -B is selected. Switch  880 - 1 A (and  880 - 1 B) is operated similar to switch  730  of FIG. 7, and switch  890 - 1 A (and  890 - 1 B) is operated similar to switch  740 . It should be noted that only one of the switches  880 - 1 A through  880 - 6 A and  8800 - 1 B through  880 - 6 B is closed corresponding to the cycles of signal  790  depending on the correction step size. Similarly, the corresponding one of the switches  890 - 1 A through  890 - 6 A and  890 - 1 B through  890 - 6 B is closed corresponding to the cycles of signal  780 .  
         [0093]    PMOS transistor  820  generates a positive voltage corresponding to any voltage block A may generate. NMOS transistor  830  generates a negative voltage corresponding to any voltage generated by block B. Only one of the two transistors is active depending on whether the correction sought is positive or negative.  
         [0094]    As a result, the magnitude of change in voltage across capacitor  8   10  equals the change caused by one of the two active blocks, and the sign is determined by the which of the two blocks caused the change. As noted above, the change caused by the blocks may be controlled by controlling the capacitances of the capacitors  860 - 1 A through  860 - 6 A and  870 - 1 B through  870 - 6 B (each operated similar to capacitor C2 of FIG. 7A).  
         [0095]    The voltage across capacitor  810  represents the corrected offset, and the offset is corrected iteratively until the error is less than or equal to the final desired error in the offset (one LSB of ADC  330  in the above example). In an embodiment, the charge in (or voltage across) capacitor  810  is drained to initialize the offset to zero. The voltage across capacitor  810  can be used to generate the offset driving CDS  310 .  
         [0096]    Thus, an aspect of the present invention provides for quick convergence to the accurate offset value as the correction is higher when the error is more. Another aspect of the present invention provides for an efficient implementation of generating the offset consistent the desired correction.  
         [0097]    9. Conclusion  
         [0098]    While various embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.