Patent ID: 8217816

Claim:
A modulator, comprising: a summing junction configured to receive a modulator input signal and to receive a feedback signal, and to generate an error signal; an analog-to-digital converter configured to receive the modulator input signal, and to generate a digital output signal; a first analog switch configured to receive the digital output signal from the analog-to-digital converter, to select among five or more first reference voltages received at a same time by the first analog switch, and to generate a plurality of second reference voltages; a second analog switch configured to generate the feedback signal, wherein the feedback signal is selected from one of the second reference voltages, depending on the output of the quantizer; a filter configured to receive the error signal and to generate a filtered error signal; a quantizer configured to receive the filtered error signal and to generate a quantizer output; and wherein the quantizer is a multi-level analog-to-digital converter.