Coded data generation or conversion – Analog to or from digital conversion – Analog to digital conversion
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-02
2001-09-18
Williams, Howard L. (Department: 2819)
Coded data generation or conversion
Analog to or from digital conversion
Analog to digital conversion
C341S150000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06292127
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to semiconductor apparatus capable of multiple stable electronic states allowing higher order mathematical radix analysis of analog and digital signals. In particular the invention relates to semiconductor apparatus and devices for analog-to-digital conversion and waveform differentiation or integration of electronic signals by use of higher order number systems. The invention discloses construction of semiconductor charge coupled devices for accomplishing the same. In addition the invention relates to novel construction of charge-coupled devices finding applications in electronics, especially with respect to detection and manipulation of electronic signals for A/D conversion, mathematical differentiation, and integration of electronic waveform signals. The device accomplishes direct A/D signal conversion with increased circuit speed while decreasing electronic component density compared to computational circuits based on binary conversion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In telecommunications and computer processing, digital signals are generally in the form of binary numbers because of two main reasons. First, conventional electronic switching components are in one of two states, namely ‘OFF’ or ‘ON’. An electronic switch turned ON corresponds to the digit ‘1’ and the same switch turned OFF corresponds to the digit ‘0’. From an electronic device standpoint the two electronic states, ON/OFF, has been easier to achieve than finding an electronic component that exhibits multiple stable states. Especially it has been found extremely difficult to find electronic components having incremental multiple stable states. The second reason digital circuits are designed with binary numbers is because of signal transmission reliability. Because of noise in signal transmission lines it has been found easier to recognize a ‘0’ and a ‘1’ among random electronic transmission noise than to identify multiple signal strengths among all this noise. This Von Neumann architecture has certainly well served Americas vast computing and digital transmission requirements to this point.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,210, issued to P. A. Levine on May 18, 1976, an electronic system for analog-to-digital conversion was disclosed including a semiconductor charge coupled device, utilizing the properties of semiconductor surface potential wells for charge storage and transfer in response to voltages applied to electrodes overlying the wells. However, the semiconductor charge coupled device portion of that system produced only a digital counting representation (unitary based number system) of the input analog signal, and the system required complex logic circuitry to convert this digital counting representation into the ultimately desired representation in the binary number system. In other words, an analog input representing the number n was converted by the charge coupled device portion into a “unitary” sequence purely of n “ones” (1,1,1, . . . 1,1,1)according to the unitary number system, rather than directly into the desired binary sequence of “ones” and “zeros” according to the binary number system. Complex logic circuitry was thus required for subsequent conversion of the “unitary” sequence into a corresponding binary digital sequence such as (1,0,1 . . . 0,1, 1) representing n=I×21 . . . +O×2i−I+1×2i−2+ . . . +0×2,4+I×21I×20, where i is selected such that I×V is the “most significant bit” in the number n.
Need for Higher Radix System
There are a number of reasons to consider a higher order number radix than binary for computing and telecommunication architecture. First of all, analog and digital integrated circuit manufacturing complexity seems to be approaching an optical resolution limit whereby it is becoming difficult to increase the number of gates on a chip. Second, fiber optic transmission lines have greatly allowed cleanup of noise in transmission systems. A major consideration is that while the electronic world is mostly digital the real world is almost entirely analog. And, of course, if the computer world works in binary arithmetic the real world is conventionally a decimal world. The technical disadvantages of binary-based integrated circuit technology are (1) maximum MOST gate complexity of any number system, (2) slowest speed of any radix system, and (3) decreased manufacturing yield because of the huge number of MOSTs required for number representation. It would be extremely desirable to have available an electronic device of more than two stable electronic states because the number of digits, or ‘gates’ required in a computer chip for number representation is a consequence of the mathematical number radix. A higher order digital number radix than binary, as a consequence of requiring far fewer ‘gates’ for number representation, allows much increased circuit speed. This is a consequence of inherent signal delay times, each gate. Decreasing the number of gates would allow much increased circuit speed. Consequent decreased circuit density allows increased manufacturing yield for a given function representation.
Pressures, temperatures, speeds, fluid flows, etc. all change continuously. To deal with this real world analog information typically an electronic circuit converts the signal information from analog to binary digital, then sends the digitized information over a signal transmission system, and then reconverts the binary digital form back to analog. One or more chips are used for analog-to-digital conversion, one or more chips for binary signal transmission, one or more for program storage, one or more for scratch pad read/write, and one or more chips are required for input/output lines, until finally the signal is reconverted from digital-to-analog. These conversion processes require many extremely complicated electronic integrated circuits whereby the total binary conversion times, plus delay due to the huge number of binary switching components results in considerable reduction of circuit speed. Moreover, even faster speeds are required of the Internet, especially for video signal transmission and compression, requiring much faster D-to-A and A-to-D conversion times. Faster electronic circuits for such wave signal processes as integration, differentiation, and multiplexing are desired. A number system analysis shows why a radix higher than binary is desirable.
Number System Considerations
Every positive integer ‘a’ can be expressed in the base system form,
a=r
m
b
m
+r
m−1
b
m−1
+ . . . +r
1
b+r
0
,
where m is a nonnegative integer and the r's are integers such that,
0
≦r
m
, b
and 0
≦r
i
<b
for
i
=0,1,
. . . , m−
1.
Base number b can be ally positive integer b>1. The number of terms, or digits, in the series representing a numeral decreases greatly as b increases. Comparing, for example, the decimal system to the binary system, the number of digits in the decimal system increase as,
. . . +
r
2
(100)+
r
1
(10)+
r
0
(1),
compared to the binary equivalent,
. . . +
r
2
(1100100)+
r
1
(1010)+
r
0
(1),
where the integers r
1
, r, r
3
, . . . r
n
must be converted to the binary system and multiplied. Similarly, decimal numbers less than 1 requires an increasing number of terms as the base integer decreases.
Increasing the radix of the number system sharply decreases the number of ‘gates’ that must physically be formed on integrated circuit chips required for numeric expression. For example, the binary equivalent of the decimal number 1,000 is the unwieldy 1111101000, requiring 250% more ‘gates’ to allow expression of the decimal equivalent. The binary number 100101101001 require 300% more gates than its decimal equivalent 2409. As number representations become much larger the gate equivalents become huge. Programmers try to alleviate the burden of working with binary ‘machine code’ directly by resorting to binary shorthand codes l
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