Patent ID: 7176819

Claim:
A method of converting an applied analog input signal to a digital representation thereof, the method comprising the steps of: (a) converting a previous instance of a coarse digital approximation of the applied analog input signal to an analog feedback signal; (b) forming the analog difference between the analog feedback signal and the applied analog input signal; (c) integrating the analog difference found in step (b); (d) generating a DC feed forward voltage from the applied analog input signal; (e) adjusting the integrated analog difference produced in step (c) with the DC feed forward voltage generated in step (d) to produce a coarse composite signal; (f) converting the coarse composite signal to a next instance of the coarse digital approximation of the applied analog input voltage, whereby each next instance of the coarse digital approximation is available for use in a respective new instance of step (a) as the recited previous instance of a coarse approximation of the applied analog input signal; and (g) for each instance of step (f), converting the integrated analog difference of step (c) to a next instance of a fine digital value that represents increased resolution for the coarse digital approximation of step (f).