Patent ID: 7176817

Claim:
An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for producing coarse digital data based on the analog signals, wherein the ADC comprises: an integrator coupled to receive the analog signals to produce an integrated output; a quantizer coupled to receive the integrated output and for producing a digital value coarsely reflecting an amplitude of the integrated output based upon randomly fluctuating reference levels, wherein the guantizer further includes; a comparator module for comparing the randomly fluctuating reference levels to the integrated output and for producing the digital value; a fluctuating reference level generator for generating the randomly fluctuating reference levels to the comparator module; a digital-to-analog converter to convert the digital value to an analog feedback signal produced to the integrator; a plurality of comparators coupled to receive the randomly fluctuating reference levels wherein each of the plurality of comparators produces a binary signal indicating whether the integrated output magnitude exceeds the received randomly fluctuating reference level; and logic for receiving the binary signal produced by each of the plurality of comparators, the logic producing the digital value wherein the digital value reflects which of the plurality of comparators produced the binary signal as a logic “1” indicating that the integrated output exceeded the received fluctuating reference signal; and a pseudo-random sequence bit stream generator for generating the pseudo-random sequence bit stream that is combined with the integrated output.