Patent ID: 6914549

Claim:
A method for reconfiguring an analog-to-digital converter, comprising the steps of: providing an analog-to-digital converter having a plurality of serially connected stages and an input terminal, each stage including a switchable integrator capable of operation as one of a sample/hold circuit and as an integrator; receiving at said analog-to-digital converter a control signal and, at said input terminal, an input analog signal, the control signal having a state selected from a group consisting of a first state and a second state, the first state associated with a first configuration of said stages by causing said switchable integrator to operate as a sample/hold circuit, the second state associated with a second configuration of said stages by causing said switchable integrator to operate as an integrator, the input analog signal comprising information; performing the following if the control signal has the first state; configuring the analog-to-digital-converter in the first configuration in response to the control signal; and generating a digital signal comprising a first digital signal according to a pipeline conversion; performing the following if the control signal has the second state: configuring the analog-to-digital converter in the second configuration in response to the control signal; and generating the digital signal comprising a second digital signal according to a multi-stage sigma delta modulation conversion; and processing the digital signal to yield a digital output, the digital output comprising the information.