Analog-to-digital converter with digital linearity correction

Claim 3

The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step c) includes computing a polynomial of said digital signal to produce said compensated digital signal, and said polynomial includes a quadratic term.

Claim 4

The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said distortion component has a frequency that is a difference between said first frequency and said second frequency.

Claim 5

The method as claimed in claim 2, which further includes passing said analog calibration signal through a signal conditioning circuit before said step b) of applying said analog calibration signal to said analog-to-digital converter, so that said compensation coefficient compensates for nonlinearity in a transfer function representing a combination of said signal conditioning circuit and said analog-to-digital converter.

Claim 8

The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein said steps c) through e) are repeated a predetermined number of times.

Claim 9

The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein said steps c) through e) are repeated until the selected nonlinear distortion component has a magnitude below a certain threshold level.

Claim 10

The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein after step e), the compensation coefficient is adjusted by a specified amount and used to distort said digital signal, so that the conversion of said analog-to-digital converter in combination with the distortion of said digital signal has a specified non-linear transfer function.

Claim 13

The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said steps c) through e) are repeated a number of times to generate a coefficient for one of said terms, and then said analog calibration signal is changed by changing a frequency component of said analog calibration signal, and said steps c) through e) are again repeated a number of times to generate a coefficient for the other of said terms.

Claim 14

The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said digitally processing said compensated digital signal includes passing said compensated digital signal through a digital band-pass filter to select said distortion component.

Claim 15

The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein said digitally processing said compensated digital signal includes detecting absolute value of said distortion component passing through said digital band-bass filter to obtain a measurement of the selected distortion component.

Claim 16

The method as claimed in claim 12, which includes producing said compensation coefficient by iteratively adjusting said compensation coefficient by either increasing or decreasing said compensation coefficient by an amount proportional to said absolute value, and determining whether the compensation coefficient is to be increased or decreased depending on whether the compensation coefficient was increased or decreased during a last iteration, and depending on whether a last change to the compensation coefficient caused the absolute value to increase or decrease.

Claim 19

The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein said offset of said analog-to-digital converter is adjusted digitally by adjusting an offset coefficient which offsets said digital signal from said analog-to-digital converter after analog-to-digital conversion by said analog-to-digital converter.

Claim 20

The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said digitally processing said compensated digital signal includes synchronously detecting the selected distortion component to obtain a measurement of the selected distortion component.

Claim 23

The method as claimed in claim 17, which further includes passing said analog calibration signal through a signal conditioning circuit before said step of operating said analog-to-digital converter in a calibration mode to convert said analog calibration signal to produce a digital signal, so that said compensation coefficient compensates for nonlinearity in a transfer function representing a combination of said signal conditioning circuit and said analog-to-digital converter.

Claim 24

The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein said step c) of digitally filtering said digital signal to produce a filtered digital signal includes passing said digital signal through a digital low-pass filter to reduce said first and second frequency components.

Claim 25

The method as claimed in claim 19, wherein said step c) of digitally filtering said digital signal to produce a filtered digital signal includes passing said digital signal through a digital band-pass filter to select said intermodulation component.

Claim 26

The method as claimed in claim 20, wherein said detecting said intermodulation component includes detecting absolute value of said intermodulation component passing through said digital band-bass filter.

Claim 29

The method as claimed in claim 19, wherein said detecting said intermodulation component includes synchronously detecting said intermodulation component.

Claim 32

The method as claimed in claim 24, wherein said corresponding digital signal is digitally compensated by computing a polynomial of said corresponding digital signal, one of said first and second compensation coefficients being a coefficient of a quadratic term in said polynomial, and another of said first and second compensation coefficients being a coefficient of a cubic term in said polynomial.

Claim 33

The method as claimed in claim 24, wherein said first intermodulation component has a first frequency and said second intermodulation component has a second frequency that is about the same as said first frequency, and said step (c) includes filtering said first digital signal to select said first intermodulation component and suppress said two frequency components of said first analog calibration signal, and wherein said step (f) includes filtering said second digital signal to select said second intermodulation component and suppress said two frequency components of said second analog calibration signal.

Claim 34

The method as claimed in claim 24, which further comprises the step of correcting DC offset of said analog-to-digital converter so that said analog-to-digital converter provides a substantially zero digital output for a substantially zero analog input, wherein said step of correcting DC offset of said analog-to-digital converter is performed before said steps (b) to (g).

Claim 35

The method as claimed in claim 24, wherein said first intermodulation component has a first frequency and said second intermodulation component has a second frequency that is about the same as said first frequency, and wherein said method further comprises the step of correcting DC offset of said analog-to-digital converter by applying a substantially zero analog input to said analog-to-digital converter to obtain a substantially constant digital output of said analog-to-digital converter, digitally modulating said substantially constant digital output at a modulation frequency that is about the same as said first frequency and said second frequency to produce a modulated signal at said modulation frequency, and adjusting offset of said analog-to-digital converter to substantially eliminate said modulated signal.

Claim 36

The method as claimed in claim 28, wherein said offset of said analog-to-digital converter is adjusted digitally by adjusting an offset coefficient which offsets the digital output of said analog-to-digital converter after analog-to-digital conversion by said analog-to-digital converter.

Claim 41

The method as claimed in claim 31, wherein said intermodulation component has a frequency that is a difference between said first frequency and said second frequency.

Claim 42

The method as claimed in claim 30, which further includes passing said analog calibration signal through a signal conditioning circuit before said step e) of applying said digital calibration signal to said analog-to-digital converter, so that said compensation coefficient compensates for nonlinearity in a transfer function representing a combination of said signal conditioning circuit and said analog-to-digital converter.

Claim 43

The method as claimed in claim 30, wherein after step e) and before step f), the compensation coefficient is adjusted by a specified amount, so that in step f) the conversion of said analog-to-digital converter in combination with the digital compensation of said digitized signal has a specified non-linear transfer function.

Claim 46

The method as claimed in claim 30, wherein the analog-to-digital converter is used in step f) to re-calibrate the digital-to-analog converter, and then steps b) to f) are repeated.

Claim 47

An analog-to-digital converter system having a digital output, said system comprising, in combination: a calibration oscillator for generating an analog calibration signal having at least one frequency component; an analog-to-digital converter connected to said calibration oscillator for converting said analog calibration signal to a digital signal; compensation coefficient storage for storing a compensation coefficient; a digital compensation unit connected to said analog-to-digital converter for receiving the digital signal and connected to said compensation coefficient storage for digitally compensating the digital signal with said compensation coefficient to produce a compensated digital signal on said digital output; a frequency-selective amplitude detector connected to said digital output for detecting a distortion component in said compensated digital signal generated by nonlinearity from said analog calibration signal; and a compensation coefficient computation unit connected to said frequency-selective amplitude detector and said compensation coefficient storage for adjusting said compensation coefficient to reduce the distortion component detected by said frequency-selective amplitude detector; wherein the oscillator is a dual-tone oscillator for generating two frequencies, and wherein the frequency-selective amplitude detector has a frequency response selecting an intermodulation component of said two frequencies.

Claim 48

An analog-to-digital converter system having a digital output, said system comprising, in combination: a calibration oscillator for generating an analog calibration signal having at least one frequency component; an analog-to-digital converter connected to said calibration oscillator for converting said analog calibration signal to a digital signal; compensation coefficient storage for storing a compensation coefficient; a digital compensation unit connected to said analog-to-digital converter for receiving the digital signal and connected to said compensation coefficient storage for digitally compensating the digital signal with said compensation coefficient to produce a compensated digital signal on said digital output; a frequency-selective amplitude detector connected to said digital output for detecting a distortion component in said compensated digital signal generated by nonlinearity from said analog calibration signal; and a compensation coefficient computation unit connected to said frequency-selective amplitude detector and said compensation coefficient storage for adjusting said compensation coefficient to reduce the distortion component detected by said frequency-selective amplitude detector; wherein the oscillator is a dual-tone oscillator for generating two frequencies, and wherein the frequency-selective amplitude detector has a frequency response selecting an intermodulation component of said two frequencies.

Claim 49

The system as claimed in claim 37, wherein the calibration oscillator includes a digital oscillator for generating a digital calibration signal having said two frequencies, and a digital-to-analog converter connected to said digital oscillator for converting said digital calibration signal to produce said analog calibration signal.

Claim 50

The system as claimed in claim 38, wherein said calibration oscillator includes a digital compensation unit connected to said digital oscillator and to said digital-to-analog converter for distorting said digital calibration signal prior to conversion by said digital-to-analog converter so that said analog calibration signal has reduced nonlinear distortion.

Claim 51

The system as claimed in claim 39, wherein said calibration oscillator includes means connected between said analog-to-digital converter and said digital compensation unit of said calibration oscillator for using said analog-to-digital converter for adjusting at least one compensation coefficient used by said digital compensation unit of said calibration oscillator for distorting said digital calibration signal prior to conversion by said digital-to-analog converter.

Claim 52

The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein said step c) includes computing a polynomial of said digital signal to produce said compensated digital signal, and said polynomial includes a quadratic term.

Claim 53

The system as claimed in claim 37, wherein the frequency-selective amplitude detector includes a digital low-pass filter connected to said digital output for suppressing said two frequencies prior to detecting amplitude of said intermodulation component of said two frequencies.

Claim 54

The system as claimed in claim 37, further comprising an analog multiplexer having an analog input for receiving an analog input signal and being connected to said calibration oscillator and to said analog-to-digital converter for selecting either said analog calibration signal or said analog input signal and passing the selected signal to said analog-to-digital converter for analog-to-digital conversion by said analog-to-digital converter.

Claim 55

An analog-to-digital converter system having a digital output, said system comprising, in combination: a calibration oscillator for generating an analog calibration signal having at least one frequency component; an analog-to-digital converter connected to said calibration oscillator for converting said analog calibration signal to a digital signal; compensation coefficient storage for storing a compensation coefficient; a digital compensation unit connected to said analog-to-digital converter for receiving the digital signal and connected to said compensation coefficient storage for digitally compensating the digital signal with said compensation coefficient to produce a compensated digital signal on said digital output; a frequency-selective amplitude detector connected to said digital output for detecting a distortion component in said compensated digital signal generated by nonlinearity from said analog calibration signal; and a compensation coefficient computation unit connected to said frequency-selective amplitude detector and said compensation coefficient storage for adjusting said compensation coefficient to reduce the distortion component detected by said frequency-selective amplitude detector; wherein said digital compensation unit is a polynomial generator for computing a polynomial having at least a third-order term using a third-order coefficient obtained from said compensation coefficient storage.

Claim 56

An analog-to-digital converter system having a digital output, said system comprising, in combination: a calibration oscillator for generating an analog calibration signal having at least one frequency component; an analog-to-digital converter connected to said calibration oscillator for converting said analog calibration signal to a digital signal; compensation coefficient storage for storing a compensation coefficient; a digital compensation unit connected to said analog-to-digital converter for receiving the digital signal and connected to said compensation coefficient storage for digitally compensating the digital signal with said compensation coefficient to produce a compensated digital signal on said digital output; a frequency-selective amplitude detector connected to said digital output for detecting a distortion component in said compensated digital signal generated by nonlinearity from said analog calibration signal; and a compensation coefficient computation unit connected to said frequency-selective amplitude detector and said compensation coefficient storage for adjusting said compensation coefficient to reduce the distortion component detected by said frequency-selective amplitude detector; wherein said digital compensation unit is a polynomial generator for computing a polynomial having at least a third-order term using a third-order coefficient obtained from said compensation coefficient storage.

Claim 57

The system as claimed in claim 37, wherein said analog-to-digital converter is a delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter.

Claim 58

The system as claimed in claim 37, further including signal conditioning circuitry connected to said analog-to-digital converter for conditioning the analog signal converted by said analog-to-digital converter prior to conversion by said analog-to-digital converter.

Claim 59

The system as claimed in claim 37, wherein said frequency-selective amplitude detector includes a digital band-pass filter connected to said digital compensation unit for band-pass filtering said compensated digital signal to select said distortion component and produce a band-pass filtered signal; and an amplitude detector connected to said band-pass filter for detecting amplitude of said distortion component in said band-pass filtered signal.

Claim 60

The system as claimed in claim 47, wherein said amplitude detector is a synchronous detector.

Claim 61

An analog-to-digital converter system having a digital output, said system comprising, in combination: a calibration oscillator for generating an analog calibration signal having at least one frequency component; an analog-to-digital converter connected to said calibration oscillator for converting said analog calibration signal to a digital signal; compensation coefficient storage for storing a compensation coefficient; a digital compensation unit connected to said analog-to-digital converter for receiving the digital signal and connected to said compensation coefficient storage for digitally compensating the digital signal with said compensation coefficient to produce a compensated digital signal on said digital output; a frequency-selective amplitude detector connected to said digital output for detecting a distortion component in said compensated digital signal generated by nonlinearity from said analog calibration signal; and a compensation coefficient computation unit connected to said frequency-selective amplitude detector and said compensation coefficient storage for adjusting said compensation coefficient to reduce the distortion component detected by said frequency-selective amplitude detector; wherein said frequency-selective amplitude detector includes a digital band-pass filter connected to said digital compensation unit for band-pass filtering said compensated digital signal to select said distortion component and produce a band-pass filtered signal; and an amplitude detector connected to said band-pass filter for detecting amplitude of said distortion component in said band-pass filtered signal; and wherein said amplitude detector is an asynchronous detector detecting a magnitude of said distortion component, and wherein said compensation coefficient computation unit includes means for iteratively adjusting said compensation coefficient and means for determining whether the compensation coefficient is to be increased or decreased depending on whether the compensation coefficient was increased or decreased during a last iteration, and depending on whether a last change to the compensation coefficient caused said magnitude to increase or decrease.

Claim 62

An analog-to-digital converter system having a digital output, said system comprising, in combination: a calibration oscillator for generating an analog calibration signal having at least one frequency component; an analog-to-digital converter connected to said calibration oscillator for converting said analog calibration signal to a digital signal; compensation coefficient storage for storing a compensation coefficient; a digital compensation unit connected to said analog-to-digital converter for receiving the digital signal and connected to said compensation coefficient storage for digitally compensating the digital signal with said compensation coefficient to produce a compensated digital signal on said digital output; a frequency-selective amplitude detector connected to said digital output for detecting a distortion component in said compensated digital signal generated by nonlinearity from said analog calibration signal; and a compensation coefficient computation unit connected to said frequency-selective amplitude detector and said compensation coefficient storage for adjusting said compensation coefficient to reduce the distortion component detected by said frequency-selective amplitude detector; wherein said frequency-selective amplitude detector includes a digital band-pass filter connected to said digital compensation unit for band-pass filtering said compensated digital signal to select said distortion component and produce a band-pass filtered signal; and an amplitude detector connected to said band-pass filter for detecting amplitude of said distortion component in said band-pass filtered signal; and wherein said amplitude detector is an asynchronous detector detecting a magnitude of said distortion component, and wherein said compensation coefficient computation unit includes means for iteratively adjusting said compensation coefficient and means for determining whether the compensation coefficient is to be increased or decreased depending on whether the compensation coefficient was increased or decreased during a last iteration, and depending on whether a last change to the compensation coefficient caused said magnitude to increase or decrease.

Claim 63

The system as claimed in claim 47, further comprising a digital modulator connected to said band-pass filter for modulating any dc component in said compensated digital signal at a frequency passed by said band-pass filter to generate a modulated signal passed to said band-pass filter so that said amplitude detector detects dc offset of said analog-to-digital converter during a dc offset correction mode when said analog-to-digital converter converts an analog value of substantially zero.

Claim 64

The system as claimed in claim 37, wherein said frequency-selective amplitude detector includes a synchronous detector for detecting said distortion component in said digital signal.

Claim 65

A analog-to-digital converter system having a digital output, said system comprising, in combination: a dual-tone digital oscillator for generating a series of digital calibration signals each having two frequency components; a digital compensation unit connected to said dual-tone digital oscillator for distorting said digital calibration signals to generate distorted digital calibration signals; a digital-to-analog converter connected to said digital oscillator for converting said distorted digital calibration signals to produce analog calibration signals having reduced distortion; an analog-to-digital converter connected to said digital-to-analog converter for converting said analog calibration signals to corresponding digital signals; polynomial coefficient storage for storing polynomial coefficients, including at least a second-order coefficient and a third-order coefficient; a polynomial generator connected to said analog-to-digital converter for receiving the corresponding digital signals, said polynomial generator being connected to said polynomial coefficient generator for computing polynomials of said corresponding digital signals to produce compensated digital signals at a digital output; and digital processing circuits connected to said polynomial generator for detecting intermodulation components of said two frequency components in said compensated digital signals, and said digital processing circuits being connected to said polynomial coefficient storage adjusting said polynomial coefficients to minimize said intermodulation components.

Claim 66

A analog-to-digital converter system having a digital output, said system comprising, in combination: a dual-tone digital oscillator for generating a series of digital calibration signals each having two frequency components; a digital compensation unit connected to said dual-tone digital oscillator for distorting said digital calibration signals to generate distorted digital calibration signals; a digital-to-analog converter connected to said digital oscillator for converting said distorted digital calibration signals to produce analog calibration signals having reduced distortion; an analog-to-digital converter connected to said digital-to-analog converter for converting said analog calibration signals to corresponding digital signals; polynomial coefficient storage for storing polynomial coefficients, including at least a second-order coefficient and a third-order coefficient; a polynomial generator connected to said analog-to-digital converter for receiving the corresponding digital signals, said polynomial generator being connected to said polynomial coefficient generator for computing polynomials of said corresponding digital signals to produce compensated digital signals at a digital output; and digital processing circuits connected to said polynomial generator for detecting intermodulation components of said two frequency components in said compensated digital signals, and said digital processing circuits being connected to said polynomial coefficient storage adjusting said polynomial coefficients to minimize said intermodulation components.

Claim 67

The system as claimed in claim 52, further comprising an analog multiplexer having an analog input for receiving an analog input signal and being connected to said digital-to-analog converter and said analog-to-digital converter for selecting either said analog calibration signals or said analog input signal and passing the selected signals to said analog-to-digital converter for conversion by said analog-to-digital converter.

Claim 68

The system as claimed in claim 52, further including signal conditioning circuitry connected to said analog-to-digital converter for conditioning the analog signals converted by said analog-to-digital converter prior to conversion by said analog-to-digital converter.

Claim 69

The system as claimed in claim 52, wherein said digital signal processing circuits include a digital band-pass filter connected to said polynomial generator for band-pass filtering said compensated digital signals to select said intermodulation components and produce band-pass filtered signals; and an amplitude detector connected to said band-pass filter for detecting amplitudes of said intermodulation components in said band-pass filtered signals.

Claim 70

The system as claimed in claim 55, wherein said amplitude detector is a synchronous detector.

Claim 71

The system as claimed in claim 55, wherein said amplitude detector is an asynchronous detector for detecting magnitudes of said intermodulation components, and wherein said digital processing circuits include means for iteratively adjusting a polynomial coefficient and means for determining whether the polynomial coefficient being adjusted is to be increased or decreased depending on whether the polynomial coefficient being adjusted was increased or decreased during a last iteration, and depending on whether a last change to the polynomial coefficient being adjusted caused a magnitude of a detected intermodulation component to increase or decrease.

Claim 72

The system as claimed in claim 55, further comprising a digital modulator connected to said band-pass filter and said digital output for modulating a dc component at said digital output at a frequency passed by said band-pass filter to generate a modulated signal provided to said band-pass filter so that said amplitude detector detects dc offset of said analog-to-digital converter during a dc offset correction mode when said analog-to-digital converter converts an analog value of substantially zero.

Claim 73

The system as claimed in claim 52, wherein said digital signal processing circuits include a digital low-pass filter connected to said digital output for suppressing said two frequencies prior to amplitude detection of said intermodulation components.

Claim 74

The system as claimed in claim 52, further comprising means connected between said analog-to-digital converter and said digital compensation unit for using said analog-to-digital converter for adjusting at least one compensation coefficient used by said digital compensation unit of said calibration oscillator for distorting said digital calibration signals prior to conversion by said digital-to-analog converter.