Analog voltage translating apparatus

Claim 1

A SYSTEM FOR CONVERTING AN ANALOG VOLTAGE TO DIGITAL FORM ACCORDING TO A BINARY DIGIT CODE WHEREIN EACH DIGIT CHANGES FROM 0 TO 1 OR VICE VERSA A PREDETERMINED NUMBER OF TIMES, COMPRISING: A PLURALITY OF ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTERS CORRESPONDING IN NUMBER TO THE NUMBER OF DIGITS IN THE CODE, EACH OF SAID CONVERTERS COMPRISING A NUMBER OF COMPARATORS CORRESPONDING TO THE NUMBER OF CHANGES OF THE DIGIT REPRESENTED BY THE CONVERTER, EACH OF SAID COMPARATORS COMPRISING A PAIR OF TRANSISTORS HAVING THEIR EMITTERS CONNECTED TO A COMMON INPUT, THERE BEING PLURAL SUCCESSIVE COMPARATORS IN AT LEAST SOME OF SAID CONVERTERS WITH EACH SUCCEEDING COMPARATOR HAVING ITS COMMON INPUT COUPLED TO THE COLLECTOR OF ONE OF THE TRANSISTORS OF THE PRECEDING COMPARATOR, OUTPUT CONNECTIONS EXTENDING FROM ALL OF THE OTHER COLLECTORS OF THE TRANSISTORS CONSTITUTING SAID CONVERTERS, MEANS FOR APPLYING SAID ANALOG VOLTAGE TO THE BASE OF ONE OF THE TRANSISTORS OF EACH OF SAID COMPARATORS, MEANS FOR APPLYING TO THE BASE OF THE OTHER TRANSISTOR OF EACH COMPARATOR A REFERENCE VOLTAGE REPRESENTING A DIGIT CHANGE IN SAID DIGIT CODE, AND MEANS FOR SUPPLYING CONSTANT CURRENT TO THE INPUT OF EACH OF SAID CONVERTERS, WHEREBY SAID CURRENT IS ROUTED IN ECH CONVERTER ACCORDING TO THE AMPLITUDE OF SAID ANALOG VOLTAGE AND AN OUTPUT VOLTAGE APPEARS AT ONE OF THE OUTPUT CONNECTIONS OF EACH CONVERTER REPRESENTING THE CORRESPONDING DIGIT OF THE DIGITAL VALUE OF SAID ANALOG VOLTAGE.