METHOD FOR INTEGRATING CONVERSION OF LOW-LEVEL SIGNALS INTO TIME INTERVAL DIFFERENCE Russian patent published in 2010 - IPC G01R19/00 

FIELD: physics.

SUBSTANCE: method is based on integrating an input signal during a given time interval and then integrating the reference voltage before the accumulated integral equals zero, recording the obtained informative time interval in which the reference voltage was integrated, determination of the overall time interval equal to duration of the given and the obtained informative time intervals, integration on the overall time interval of the bias voltage and then integration of the reference voltage before the accumulated integral equals zero and determination of the conversion result as the difference between time intervals when the reference voltage was integrated. Integration of the bias voltage and the reference voltage is repeated several times on the overall time interval equal to duration of the given and obtained informative time intervals. The time for integrating the bias voltage is given such that it is shorter than the remaining part of the overall interval by a corresponding value which is found using the ratio of the maximum value of the bias voltage to the value of reference voltage. The said corresponding value is determined using the formula k is the ratio of the maximum value of bias voltage to the reference voltage; Δ is the given error of the measure of time used; c>1 is the logarithm base.

EFFECT: increased measurement accuracy determined by the used measure of time.

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