Device for regulating a random stream of voltage pulses at the input of an analog-to-digital converter

摘要

A device converts a random stream of voltage pulses into a regulated stream of digital data. The device includes a stream regulation device and an analog-digital converter at the output of the stream regulation device. The converter undertakes an analog-digital conversion at a conversion frequency. The stream regulation device includes a buffer memory of capacity K, where K is an integer and K≧1, in which the voltage signal for each received pulse is stored. Reading of the buffer memory is regulated at the conversion frequency.

主权项

1. A device, comprising:
a photoelectric detector and an electronic circuit associated with a pixel, the photoelectric detector to receive incident photons and to emit current pulses at output, wherein the electronic circuit includes an integrated circuit including a first condensator and a first resistor, placed in parallel between output and inverter input of an operational amplifier, the inverter input of the operational amplifier receives the current pulses, the integrator circuit emits voltage pulses at output, the electronic circuit includes a conversion device which receives at input output of the integrator circuit, and which emits at output a regulated digital signal at a conversion frequency, and the conversion device includes
a stream regulation device, andan analog-digital converter at output of the stream regulation device, whereinthe converter undertakes an analog-digital conversion at the conversion frequency,the stream regulation device includes a buffer memory consisting of K analog memory cells, where K is an integer and K≧1, in which voltage signal for each received pulse is stored, in a write phase, reading of the buffer memory being regulated at the conversion frequency and undertaken in an asynchronous manner relative to writing, andthe stream regulation device includes an amplitude detector which receives the pulses at input, and which produces, for each pulse received, an analog signal, an amplitude of which is proportional to maximum amplitude of the respective pulse, the analog signal being supplied to the buffer memory.