Patent ID: 8446483

Claim:
A binary conversion circuit comprising: a latch circuit that latches phase information of at least one clock signal when the level of a signal is inverted, the level of the signal being inverted based on its state; at least one conversion circuit that converts the latched phase information of the latch circuit to a pulse train in response to a pulse signal; and a ripple counter section that converts phase information of a clock to a binary code by using the pulse obtained by the conversion of the conversion circuit as a count clock, wherein the conversion circuit includes a first conversion circuit and a second conversion circuit, wherein the ripple counter section includes a first ripple counter section and a second ripple counter section, wherein the latch circuit includes four T-type flip-flops that latch different four clock signals, respectively, in which three consecutive T-type flip-flops form a first latch, and a remaining one of the four T-type flip-flops forms a second latch, wherein the binary conversion circuit further includes a selector that selects latched phase information of the three T-type flip-flops serving as the first latch of the latch circuit in response to a select signal, and a mask circuit that performs mask processing for determining whether or not latched phase information of the T-type flip-flop serving as the second latch of the latch circuit will be input to the second conversion circuit in response to a mask signal, wherein the first conversion circuit converts the four pieces of latched phase information of the latch circuit to a pulse train in response to a first pulse signal and outputs the converted signal as a count clock of the first ripple counter section; and wherein the second conversion circuit converts an output signal of the first ripple counter section or the latched phase information of the T-type flip-flop serving as the second latch, supplied via the mask circuit, to a count clock in response to a second pulse signal and outputs the count clock to the second ripple counter section that counts an upper bit.