Voltage to time-interval converter

Claim 1

A SOLID STATE ELECTRONIC VOLTAGE TO TIME-INTERVAL CONVERTER CIRCUIT COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION MEANS FOR INTERNALLY GENERATING A LINEAR SWEEP VOLTAGE AS A FUNCTION OF TIME, MEANS FOR INTERNALLY GENERATING A SUBSTANTIALLY FIXED REFERENCE VOLTAGE, MEANS FOR RECEIVING AN EXTERNALLY GENERATED ANALOG VOLTAGE, COMPARATOR MEANS HAVING FIRST AND SECOND INPUTS AND RESPONSIVE TO SEPARATE SIGNALS IMPRESSED THEREON TO GENERATE AN OUTPUT SIGNAL WHEN SAID SEPARATE INPUTS OBTAIN A PREDETERMINED MAGNITUDE WITH RESPECT TO EACH OTHER, SAID FIRST INPUT BEING CONNECTED TO SAID LINEAR SWEEP VOLTAGE GENERATING MEANS, D.C. SCALING AMPLIFIER MEANS HAVING AN INPUT AND AN OUTPUT AND BEING CONNECTED TO DELIVER AN AMPLIFIER SIGNAL TO SAID SECOND INPUT OF SAID COMPARATOR MEANS WHEN A SIGNAL IS APPLIED TO SAID INPUT THEREOF, AND SWITCHING MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID INPUT OF SAID D.C. AMPLIFIER AND OPERABLE BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND POLE POSITIONS FOR SELECTIVELY APPLYING SAID FIXED REFERENCE VOLTAGE AND SAID ANALOG VOLTAGE TO SAID SCALING AMPLIFIER MEANS, TOGETHER WITH MEANS OPERATIVELY COUPLED TO SAID COMPARATOR MEANS OUTPUT AND RESPONSIVE TO OUTPUT SIGNALS THEREFROM FOR SELECTIVELY SWITCHING SAID SWITCHING MEANS BETWEEN SAID FIRST AND SECOND POLE POSITIONS, WHEREBY SAID COMPARATOR MEANS PROVIDES SPACED-APART PULSES SEPARATED BY A TIME INTERVAL CORRESPONDING TO THE MAGNITUDE OF SAID ANALOG VOLTAGE WITH RESPECT TO SAID REFERENCE VOLTAGE AND SUCH TIME INTERVAL IS SUBSTANTIALLY UNAFFECTED BY VOLTAGE DRIFTS AT SAID SCALING AMPLIFIER MEANS, SAID COMPARATOR MEANS, AND SAID LINEAR SWEEP VOLTAGE GENERATING MEANS.