Patent ID: 6962436

Claim:
A method for sampling and digitizing a temperature measurement from a first temperature sensing element, comprising: applying a first excitation source to said first temperature sensing element; generating an input voltage step at said first temperature sensing element as a result of said application of said first excitation source; AC coupling said input voltage step to an integrator; integrating charges corresponding to a transition of said input voltage step on an accumulation capacitor; generating entirely in the charge domain a charge domain reference signal; applying said charge domain reference signal to said integrator; generating a data dependent signal for deactivating or activating said integrator; integrating charges corresponding to a reference charge packet associated with a transition of said charge domain reference signal on said accumulation capacitor when said data dependent signal has a first value or disregarding said charges corresponding to said reference charge packet when said data dependent signal has a second value, said transition of said charge domain reference signal being opposite to said transition of said input voltage step; comparing a signal corresponding to said charges accumulated on said accumulation capacitor with a reference level; and generating an output signal as a result of said comparing, said data dependent signal having said first value and said second value corresponding to respective logical levels of said output signal; wherein after a plurality of sampling cycles, said output signal forms a digital data stream having an ones density proportional to a magnitude of said input voltage step.