Patent ID: 8188901

Claim:
An analog-to-digital converter, comprising: an input adapted to receive a first analog signal; a coarse analog-to-digital converter, adapted to convert a first representation of the first analog signal to a first logical representation of the first analog signal having an associated first quantized energy per bit; a digital amplifier adapted to produce a second logical representation based on at least the first logical representation, having an associated second quantized energy per bit, the second quantized energy per bit being higher by at least 6 dB than the first quantized energy per bit, and transform the energy represented by the second logical representation into a second analog signal; a subtractor adapted to combine a time synchronized second representation of the first analog signal and the second analog signal to generate an analog residue signal representing a difference of the first analog signal and the second analog signal, the first and second representations of the first analog signal being respectively scaled based on at least a relationship between the first quantized energy per bit and the second quantized energy per bit; a fine analog-to-digital converter that is adapted to convert the analog residue signal to a third logical representation; and a digital processor, adapted to combine the first logical representation and the third logical representation to generate a fourth logical representation which represents the first analog signal with greater precision than the first logical representation.