US Patent 7429939 Signal analysis using dual converters and cross spectrum

A technique for examining the frequency content of an analog signal includes sampling the analog signal using two analog-to-digital converters clocked at the same rate but offset with respect to each other by a delay. The technique involves computing a cross spectrum of one converter's output with respect to the other's. Owing to the delay between the converters, different frequencies of the analog signal are represented as different phases in the cross spectrum, thus allowing input frequencies to be inferred.