Stochastic analog-to-digital converter based on the asynchronous sampling of a reference triangle

An analog-to-digital (A/D) converter is presented based on the repeated comparison at random intervals of the input voltage with the instantaneous value of a triangular waveform. This asynchronous sampling of a triangular waveform results in a converter, which features simplicity, both in conversion principle and circuit design, as the linearity merely depends on short-term stability of nonprecision components. The resolution increases with the number of samples and a tradeoff is possible between resolution and conversion time. In intelligent sensors the transducer, the signal conditioning circuits, and the A/D converter are integrated in a single chip. The required IC-process compatibility of all these subsystems narrows the range of the possibilities for implementing special processing steps to realize precision components, which favors the application of the stochastic A/D converter