Feed-forward high resolution sensor measurement using low resolution ADC

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10873340-B2
Application number	US-201916667409-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 29, 2019
Priority date	Oct 29, 2018
Publication date	Dec 22, 2020
Grant date	Dec 22, 2020

Abstract

According to one aspect of the invention, a method for making relatively high resolution measurements using relatively low resolution devices includes the steps of: deriving a first anticipated measurement value; using the first anticipated measurement value as an initial feed-forward signal; comparing the initial feed forward signal to a received signal from a sensor, thereby generating a compared signal; scaling the compared signal to full scale of an analog-to-digital converter, thereby generating a scaled signal; delivering the scaled signal in binary form for computation; and iteratively performing the comparing step until the compared signal is below a predetermined threshold value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for making relatively high resolution measurements using relatively low resolution devices, the method including the steps of:
deriving a first anticipated measurement value;
using the first anticipated measurement value as an initial feed-forward signal;
comparing the initial feed forward signal to a received signal from a sensor, thereby generating a compared signal;
scaling the compared signal to full scale of an analog-to-digital converter, thereby generating a scaled signal;
delivering the scaled signal in binary form for computation; and
iteratively performing the comparing step until the compared signal is below a predetermined threshold value.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of deriving a first anticipated measurement value includes obtaining an absolute accuracy measurement and operational characteristics of the sensor.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of using the first anticipated measurement value includes two digital-to-analog converters (DACs) driving a “Coarse” and “Fine” signal into a summing amplifier.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the “Coarse” signal is preferably scaled to the full range of a sensor feedback output signal.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
shifting the scaled signal.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the feed-forward signal is derived in a processor.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the feed-forward signal is derived in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA).

Assignees

• Us Gov Sec Navy

Inventors

• Dixon Ray

Classifications

• H03M1/48

  Servo-type converters · CPC title

• H03M1/68

  with conversions of different sensitivity, i.e. one conversion relating to the more significant digital bits and another conversion to the less significant bits · CPC title

• H03M1/00

  Analogue/digital conversion; Digital/analogue conversion (conversion of analogue values to or from differential modulation H03M3/00) · CPC title

• H03M1/12 Primary

  Analogue/digital converters ({H03M1/001 – } H03M1/10 take precedence) · CPC title

• H03M1/1071

  Measuring or testing · CPC title