Patent ID: 7710305

Claim:
An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) apparatus that is arranged for operation as a folding ADC with a unified architecture using a fine channel without a coarse channel, wherein the apparatus is configured to convert an analog input signal (VIN) to a digital output signal (DOUT), the apparatus comprising: a plurality (N) of folding amplifier stages (STAGE 1 through STAGE N), wherein the folding amplifier stages are arranged in a cascaded configuration such that a bus of input terminals for a subsequent folding amplifier stage is coupled to a bus of output terminals for a preceding folding amplifier stage in the cascaded configuration, wherein each folding amplifier stage includes a corresponding folding factor; a plurality (N) of fine comparator stages (STAGE 1 through STAGE N), wherein the fine comparator stages are arranged in a distributed configuration where each of the fine comparator stages is associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of folding amplifier stages, wherein each of the fine comparator stages includes a bus of input terminals that is coupled to the bus of output terminals for the corresponding folding amplifier stage, and wherein each of the fine comparator stages includes a bus of output terminals; and an encoder that includes a bus of input terminals, wherein the bus of input terminals in the encoder is correspondingly coupled to the bus of output terminals from each of the fine comparator stages, wherein the encoder is arranged to evaluate all outputs from the fine comparator stages to determine the digital output signal.