Abstract:
AN ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERTER IS SHOWN WHEREIN AN AMPLIFIER IS CONNECTED IN THE CONVERTER CIRCUIT TO PERFORM BOTH FUNCTIONS OF AMPLIFICATION AND INTEGRATION AS WELL AS PROVIDING A HIGH INPUT IMPEDANCE. THE CONVERTER INPUT IS SHORTED WHILE DRIFT VOLTAGES DUE TO THE AMPLIFIER INTEGRATOR ARE COMPENSATED BY AMPLIFYING THE DRIFT VOLTAGE AND UTILIZING THE AMPLIFIED VALUE AS DRIFT COMPENSATION BY FEEDBACK TO THE INPUT. AN UNKNOWN VOLTAGE SIGNAL IS NEXT COUPLED TO THE POTENTIOMETRIC FEEDBACK CONNECTED AMPLIFIER AND THE INPUT SIGNAL IS INTEGRATED FOR A PREDETERMINED TIME. A REFERENCE VOLTAGE OF LIKE SIGN TO THE UNKNOWN ANALOG SIGNAL IS THEN INTEGRATED WHILE THE AMPLIFIER IS CONNECTED AS AN INVERTING INTEGRATOR. THE TIME THAT IS NECESSARY FOR THE INTEGRATOR OUTPUT VOLTAGE TO REACH ITS INITIAL ZERO LEVEL IS MEASURED BY A DIGITAL REPRESENTATION GENERATING MEANS SUCH AS A COUNTER AND YIELDS A DIGITAL REPRESENTATION OF THE INPUT ALONG SIGNAL.