CHARGE-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER

A charge-to-digital converter including a pipeline of at least one conversion unit, each conversion unit operable for processing a serial stream of positive and negative signal charges corresponding to a differential signal to be digitized and scaling charges corresponding to a full-scale signal, and for generating a digital output signal. Each of the conversion units includes the following; A receiver which receives positive and negative signal charges and a scaling signal from a predetermined source. Certain embodiments include positive and negative signal channels having a distributed sensing pipeline operable for respectively producing positive and negative accumulator charges representative of the positive and negative signal charges. A unit for generating a modification charge corresponding to a predetermined proportion of the full-scale signal. A comparator for comparing the positive and negative accumulator charges and generating the digital output signal in accordance with the comparator result. A unit responsive to the comparator for adding the modification charge to the lesser of the positive and negative signal charge.