Circuits and methods for processing a signal generated by a plurality of measuring devices

摘要

Circuits and methods use a feedback arrangement to select one or more measuring devices from a plurality of measuring devices in order to rapidly identify a direction of a sensed parameter. In some embodiments, the plurality of measuring devices corresponds to a plurality of magnetic field sensing elements and the sensed parameter is a magnetic field.

主权项

1. An electronic circuit, comprising:
a plurality of measuring devices to generate a corresponding plurality of measuring device signals, each one of the plurality of measuring device signals having a respective magnitude related to an angle of a direction of a sensed parameter; a preprocessing circuit coupled to receive a signal representative of the plurality of measuring device signals, coupled to receive an index value identifying as selection of one or more measuring devices from among the plurality of measuring devices, and configured to generate either a first preprocessed output signal representative of a selected one or more of the plurality of measuring device signals selected in accordance with the index value or a second preprocessed output signal representative of a sum of a selected set of signals representative of the plurality of measuring device signals selected in accordance with the index value; and a post processing circuit coupled to receive the first or the second preprocessed output signal and configured to relate a crossing of a predetermined value of the first or the second preprocessed output signal to the index value, wherein the crossing of the predetermined value is representative of the angle of the direction of the sensed parameter, wherein the post processing circuit comprises:
an analog-to-digital converter coupled to receive a signal representative of the first or the second preprocessed output signal and configured to generate a digital converted signal, wherein the digital converted signal corresponds to the index value, wherein there preprocessing circuit is coupled to receive the index value in a feedback arrangement, wherein the index value is generated by the post processing circuit.