Patent ID: 7068206

Claim:
A method of converting analog electric signals into a stream of binary data, comprising the steps of: (a) Applying to a capacitor a reference voltage corresponding to a predetermined threshold value, (b) Switching said capacitor to have applied to it an analog input signal directly, without performing “sample and hold” of said input signal, (c) Generating a transition pulse when the analog input signal reaches said predetermined threshold value, without circuit switching at the input or the output until that moment, (d) Subtracting from the input signal the fraction thereof that corresponds to said predetermined threshold value, (e) Upon the occurrence of said transition pulse, simultaneously perform: passive digital monitoring of the occurrence of said transition pulse, and asynchronously reset said capacitor and start a new switching cycle, (f) Digitally process transition pulses to generate a digital data stream corresponding to the digital value of the analog input signal.