Patents by Inventor Kenneth C. Adam

Kenneth C. Adam has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 4189714
    Abstract: An analog-to-digital converter of the type using a plurality of voltage comparators, each, in response to an applied reference voltage and an analog voltage to be digitized, producing one of two logic signals depending on which of the applied voltages is the greater includes apparatus for altering the reference voltages on some but not all the comparators as a function of time in response to a control signal.In one embodiment, each of the altered reference voltages is limited to some preselected differential relative to that applied to one of the comparators which does not have its reference voltage altered as a function of time.In another embodiment, that one comparator has its reference voltage altered as a function of ratio of the time it produces one of the two logic signals relative to the other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 1978
    Date of Patent: February 19, 1980
    Assignee: RCA Corporation
    Inventor: Kenneth C. Adam
  • Patent number: 4127885
    Abstract: A control transistor in the over-current protection circuitry of a voltage regulator is connected in a regenerative latch circuit with a complementary-conductivity auxiliary transistor, whereby conduction once initiated in said control transistor tends to be sustained. This avoids the tendency towards rapid oscillation between shut-down and power-up conditions in the over-current protection circuitry. The regenerative latch circuit loads the capacitor that supplies its sustaining current so heavily that the potential thereacross decays, the decay finally advancing to the point where regeneration halts. The resulting non-conduction of the control transistor permits the voltage regulator to attempt to resume the power-up condition. The present invention is an improvement in such a voltage regulator wherein circuitry is provided for rapidly recharging the capacitor for supplying sustaining current during this attempt.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 1977
    Date of Patent: November 28, 1978
    Assignee: RCA Corporation
    Inventors: Kenneth C. Adam, Finis C. Easter