Patent ID: 8373587

Claim:
A semiconductor integrated circuit comprising: first to N-th comparators to compare an input voltage with a corresponding threshold value, where N is a positive integer; and a control circuit to perform alternately a first operation and a second operation, to set a threshold value of the first comparator as a first threshold value, and to set a threshold value of an M-th (1<M<N) comparator as a second threshold value, wherein the first operation includes an operation in which, in a first state, a first value, obtained by multiplying a second value obtained by subtracting the threshold value of the M-th comparator from a threshold value of an (M+1)th comparator by a positive real number smaller than 1, is added to the threshold value of the M-th comparator to update the threshold value of the M-th comparator, and wherein the second operation includes an operation in which, in a second state, a third value, obtained by multiplying a fourth value obtained by subtracting the threshold value of the M-th comparator from a threshold value of an (M−1)th comparator by a positive real number smaller than 1, is added to the threshold value of the M-th comparator to update the threshold value of the M-th comparator.