Patent ID: 7358881

Claim:
A method of preventing quantizer overload in a delta sigma modulator, wherein a closed loop of the delta sigma modulator includes one or more filter stages of the loop filter coupled to the output of the initial filter stage, a quantizer coupled to an output of the loop filter, and a feedback path coupled between an output of the quantizer and one or more of the filter stages coupled to the output of the initial filter stage, the method comprising: providing a delta sigma modulator input signal minus a quantizer output feedback signal to an initial filter stage of a loop filter of the delta sigma modulator; providing quantizer feedback to at least one additional filter stage of the loop filter; limiting an output of the initial filter stage using a limiter in an integrator of the initial filter stage of the loop filter; providing an output signal of the initial filter stage to a second filter stage of the loop filter; and maintaining a low pass transfer function of the closed loop when limiting the output of the initial filter stage of the loop filter.