Patent ID: 7733258

Claim:
A method, comprising: providing one or more conductors for transferring control information, the control information selecting whether a data conversion in a data converter is to be a J-bit data conversion or an A-bit data conversion, wherein J and A are integers, and wherein the data converter has a charge redistribution array having a total capacitance C; when the J-bit data conversion is selected, performing the J-bit data conversion using the data converter; and when the A-bit data conversion is selected, performing the A-bit data conversion using the data converter, wherein the data converter is used to perform both the J-bit data conversion and the A-bit data conversion, and wherein the step of performing the A-bit data conversion using the data converter comprises: receiving an input voltage that is to be converted; using the input voltage to charge a first portion of the total capacitance C of the charge redistribution array, wherein the first portion of the total capacitance C of the charge redistribution array is less than all of the total capacitance C; performing a successive approximation on L most significant bits to produce an unscaled conversion result, wherein L is an integer less than J and greater than A; and shifting the unscaled conversion result to produce a scaled conversion result.