Patent ID: 7903010

Claim:
An analog-to-digital converter, comprising: a noise-shaping filter having an input for receiving an analog signal to be converted to a digital value; a quantizer having an input coupled to an output of the noise-shaping filter for generating quantized output values at a quantization rate of the quantizer, wherein the quantized output values are from a set of more than two output values; a digital-to-analog converter having an input for receiving the quantized output values and having an output coupled to an input of the noise-shaping filter for providing a feedback signal, wherein the noise-shaping filter, the quantizer and the digital-to-analog converter form a delta-sigma modulator loop; and a serial data circuit having an input coupled to an output of the quantizer for generating a serial bit stream representing the quantized output values, wherein a ratio of the bit rate of the serial bit stream to the quantization rate of the quantizer is greater than unity but less than a minimum number of bits required to represent the input of the digital-to-analog converter.