Patent 7268714 was granted and assigned to Analog Devices on September, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A rapid response measurement is accomplished by providing to a programmable gain amplifier an input to be measured, providing to an analog to digital converter having a predetermined output rate, the output from the programmable gain amplifier, determining when the output is greater than full scale input range of the analog to digital converter in an interval shorter than the period of the predetermined output rate of the analog to digital converter and adjusting the gain of the programmable gain amplifier to reduce the output below the full scale of the analog to digital converter at a rate faster than the predetermined output rate of the ADC.