Voltage-to-digital converter

Claim 1

IN AN ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER SYSTEM FOR CONVERTING AN ANALOG INPUT VOLTAGE INTO A CORRESPONDING MULTIDIGITAL OUTPUT SIGNAL, SAID SYSTEM INCLUDING: A REGISTER HAVING A PLURALITY OF DIGITIZING FLIP-FLOPS, FEEDBACK CIRCUIT MEANS COUPLED TO SAID REGISTER FOR PRODUCING A FEEDBACK REFERENCE VOLTAGE CORRESPONDING TO THE SETTINGS OF THE DIGITIZING FLIP-FLOPS, INPUT CIRCUIT MEANS TO WHICH AN ANALOG INPUT VOLTAGE MAY BE APPLIED, SUMMING CIRCUIT MEANS COUPLED TO SAID FEEDBACK CIRCUIT MEANS AND TO SAID INPUT CIRCUIT MEANS FOR PRODUCING A CONTROL VOLTAGE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SAID INPUT VOLTAGE AND SAID FEEDBACK VOLTAGE, SAID SUMMING CIRCUIT MEANS INCLUDING A PLURALITY OF PRECISION RESISTANCE ELEMENTS, AND A CORRESPONDING PLURALITY OF SWITCHING CIRCUITS CONNECTED TO RESPECTIVE ONES OF SAID PRECISION RESISTANCE ELEMENTS AND TO CORRESPONDING ONES OF SAID DIGITIZING FLIP-FLOPS TO CONNECT SAID PRECISION RESISTANCE ELEMENTS SELECTIVELY INTO SAID SUMMING CIRCUIT WHEN SAID FLIP-FLOPS ARE ACTUATED FROM ONE STATE TO THE OTHER, EACH OF SAID SWITCHING CIRCUITS INCLUDES A PAIR OF SWITCHING DEVICES, MEANS FOR CONNECTING SAID SWITCHING DEVICES TO A PRECISION VOLTAGE SOURCE, ONE OF SAID SWITCHING DEVICES BEING CONNECTED TO A CORRESPONDING ONE OF SAID PRECISION RESISTANCE ELEMENTS, A BALANCING RESISTANCE ELEMENT HAVING A VALUE CORRESPONDING TO THE VALUE OF THE CORRESPONDING ONE OF SAID PRECISION RESISTANCE ELEMENTS AND CONNECTED TO A POINT OF REFERENCE POTENTIAL AND TO THE OTHER OF SAID SWITCHING DEVICES, AND INPUT CIRCUIT MEANS CONNECTED TO A CORRESPONDING ONE OF SAID DIGITIZING FLIP-FLOPS AND TO SAID SWITCHING DEVICES TO DERIVE COMPLEMENTARY OUTPUT SIGNALS FROM SAID FLIP-FLOP SO AS TO RENDER SAID SWITCHING DEVICES CONDUCTIVE AND NON-CONDUCTIVE IN AN ALTERNATE RELATIONSHIP.