Patent ID: 7629913

Claim:
A data processing method wherein an analog processing object signal is compared with a reference signal having a gradually varying value and used to convert the processing object signal into digital data and a counting process is carried out within a designated counting operation enabled period and then a count value at a point of time at which the counting process is completed is retailed to acquire digital data of N bits of the processing object signal, comprising the steps of: carrying out, using a counter section including a lower order bit counter section for lower order M bits which operates with a first count clock and a higher order bit counter section for higher order N-M bits which operates with a second count clock obtained by dividing the first count clock by 2^M, counting operations using the first and second count clocks, whose frequencies are different by an amount corresponding to a weight of the bits from each other, independently of each other; and compensating for an excess or deficiency of data of the higher order N-M bits counted using the second count clock with respect to the count value counted using the first count clock within the counting operation enabled period using the data of the lower order M bits counted using the first counter clock.