Abstract: One embodiment of the invention relates to a semiconductor device formed over a semiconductor body. In this device, source and drain regions are formed in the body about lateral edges of a gate electrode and are separated from one another by a gate length. A channel region, which is configured to allow charged carriers to selectively flow between the source and drain regions during operation of the device, has differing widths under the gate electrode. These widths are generally perpendicular to the gate length. Other devices, methods, and systems are also disclosed.

Abstract: One embodiment of the invention relates to a semiconductor device formed over a semiconductor body. In this device, source and drain regions are formed in the body about lateral edges of a gate electrode and are separated from one another by a gate length. A channel region, which is configured to allow charged carriers to selectively flow between the source and drain regions during operation of the device, has differing widths under the gate electrode. These widths are generally perpendicular to the gate length. Other devices, methods, and systems are also disclosed.

Abstract: An analog-to-digital (A/D) converter system is provided that compensates for operating variations associated with one or more passive components of the A/D converter. In one aspect of the present invention, the A/D converter system comprises a sigma delta modulator having at least one passive component and a feedback path that includes at least one switched digital-to-analog converter (DAC), and a tracking reference generator that provides compensated reference signals to the at least one switched DAC for providing feedback to the sigma delta modulator. The compensated reference signals include inverse variations that cancel operating variations associated with the at least one passive component.

Abstract: Sigma delta modulators and digital to analog converters therefor are disclosed, in which intentional mismatch is provided in circuit elements of the digital to analog converter to facilitate tone reduction where dynamic element matching is used in selecting the digital to analog converter circuit elements. Methods are disclosed for fabricating digital to analog converters for providing analog feedback using a group of circuit elements selected according to a quantized output signal in a sigma delta modulator, in which a plurality of matched circuit elements having values within a tolerance amount of a design value are provided in the group along with at least one mismatched circuit element having a mismatched element value differing from the design value by a mismatch amount, where the mismatch amount is greater than the tolerance amount.

Abstract: An analog signal (VIN) is converted into a digital signal (24) by sampling the analog signal at a plurality of points in time to produce a sampled signal (32) which represents the analog signal. A filtering operation is advantageously incorporated into the sampling operation (102). The filtering operation filters the analog signal such that the sampled signal represents a filtered version of the analog signal. The digital signal is produced from the sampled signal.

Abstract: An analog signal (VIN) is converted into a digital signal (24) by sampling the analog signal at a plurality of points in time to produce a sampled signal (32) which represents the analog signal. A filtering operation is advantageously incorporated into the sampling operation (102). The filtering operation filters the analog signal such that the sampled signal represents a filtered version of the analog signal. The digital signal is produced from the sampled signal.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for dithering idle channel tones in delta-sigma converters is provided. In a delta-sigma modulator (10), random dither signal (23) is added before quantizing a signal in order to attenuate the idle channel tones. A random number generator (50) coupled to a digital-to-analog converter (52) with an applied biasing current (54) produces the dither signal (23). The dither signal (23) combines with an input signal at the input of a quantizer (14) in order to randomly change the quantizer output (15) and attenuate idle channel tones.