US Patent 7652604 Programmable analog-to-digital converter for low-power DC-DC SMPS

A voltage-to-time based windowed analog-to-digital converter (ADC) can have programmable reference voltage, conversion time, and accuracy of voltage regulation. The ADC can be fully implemented on a small silicon area and is suitable for implementation in various integrated digital controllers for high-frequency low-power switch-mode power supplies (SMPS). The programmable characteristics can be achieved through the utilization of the inherent averaging effect of the delay line or of the other voltage-to-time conversion structures and through the adjustments of delay cells' propagation times or the effective voltage-to-time conversion ratio in alternative structures.