Abstract: A reference voltage generation circuit of the present invention includes: a band gap reference-type current generation circuit for controlling each of currents flowing through a first current path and a second current path, which are extending from a first node to a second node, to be a predetermined reference current, by utilizing a voltage difference occurring between a pair of transistors or diodes; and a resistive load circuit provided between the second node and a third node.

Abstract: The phase-locked loop circuit includes a gain setting circuit for setting a gain of a voltage controlled oscillator, and a time-constant setting circuit for setting a time constant, which is determined by the amount of current in a charge pump circuit and a capacitance value of a loop filter. The gain setting circuit sets the gain to a predetermined value, and the time-constant setting circuit sets the time constant to a predetermined value, whereby the loop band width of the phase-locked loop circuit is set to a desired value.

Abstract: A product-sum operation circuit includes a pulse width/digital conversion circuit (9) which converts a pulse signal having a pulse width representing an operand value into a digital signal, a sorting circuit (4) which outputs, in descending or ascending order of magnitude, a plurality of operand values Xi converted into digital signals by the pulse width/digital conversion circuit (9), and an accumulated sum circuit (1) which multiplies each operand value output from the sorting circuit (4) by a corresponding operand value Wi and calculates the accumulated sum of multiplication results. The pulse width/digital conversion circuit (9) includes a counter (10) which counts a clock and outputs a count value as a digital signal, and n trailing edge latch circuits (11-0-11-(n?1)) each of which latches a common count value output from the counter at the trailing edge of the input pulse signal.

Abstract: A ladder filter includes multiple inductor sections, each including voltage-controlled current sources and capacitors. A second signal input terminal is provided for the filter separately from an ordinary signal input terminal and a signal, which has been input through the second terminal, is supplied to one of the voltage-controlled current sources by way of a gain calculator. By adjusting the gain obtained by the gain calculator to an appropriate value, the ladder filter can make the numerator of its transfer function freely definable.

Abstract: Data in multidimensional space such as a two-dimensional image is encoded with high efficiency. Further, as two-dimensional data can be decomposed to one-dimensional bases, the problem of wiring for two-dimensional parallelizing in a convolution arithmetic unit can be solved. For this purpose, two-dimensional image data f(x,y) to be encoded is inputted, and one-dimensional adaptive bases X(x),Y(y) representing the two-dimensional image are obtained. Next, a reconstructed image is generated based on the one-dimensional adaptive bases, and the one-dimensional adaptive bases are corrected based on an error E between the reconstructed image and the input image. The correction is repeated until the error E is reduced.

Abstract: A transconductor for receiving a differential voltage signal and outputting a differential current signal, includes two transconductors for receiving the differential voltage signal and outputting a single-end current signal. An inversion input terminal of one of the two transconductors is connected with a non-inversion input terminal of the other. The transconductor outputs a current signal output from each of the two transconductors as the differential current signal.

Abstract: An analog filter is placed at a stage previous to an analog-digital converter (ADC), and a waveform equalizer is placed at a stage subsequent to the ADC. The sampling frequency of the ADC is determined by a clock generation section according to the relationship between the bit rate of an input reproduction signal and the characteristic of the analog filter. The number of taps is changed according to the relationship between the bit rate of the input reproduction signal and the characteristic of the analog filter. Further, the tap coefficients of a waveform equalizer are changed according to the height of the frequency band of the input reproduction signal. A waveform evaluation section generates a signal that evaluates a waveform equalization signal transmitted from the waveform equalizer to a Viterbi decoder, whereby adaptive waveform equalization is realized.

Abstract: A switched capacitor filter comprises three switched capacitor circuits. Each switched capacitor circuit has a capacitance. A first state that the capacitance is connected to an input end of a current signal, a second state that the capacitance is connected to an output end of a voltage signal, and a third state that the capacitance is connected to a side of a filter capacitance, are cycled. These three switched capacitor circuits are operated under an interleave control so that the first to third states do not each overlap between the three switched capacitor circuits.

Abstract: A product-sum operation circuit includes a pulse width/digital conversion circuit (9) which converts a pulse signal having a pulse width representing an operand value into a digital signal, a sorting circuit (4) which outputs, in descending or ascending order of magnitude, a plurality of operand values Xi converted into digital signals by the pulse width/digital conversion circuit (9), and an accumulated sum circuit (1) which multiplies each operand value output from the sorting circuit (4) by a corresponding operand value Wi and calculates the accumulated sum of multiplication results. The pulse width/digital conversion circuit (9) includes a counter (10) which counts a clock and outputs a count value as a digital signal, and n trailing edge latch circuits (11-0–11-(n?1)) each of which latches a common count value output from the counter at the trailing edge of the input pulse signal.

Abstract: A product-sum operation circuit includes a pulse width/digital conversion circuit (9) which converts a pulse signal having a pulse width representing an operand value into a digital signal, a sorting circuit (4) which outputs, in descending or ascending order of magnitude, a plurality of operand values Xi converted into digital signals by the pulse width/digital conversion circuit (9), and an accumulated sum circuit (1) which multiplies each operand value output from the sorting circuit (4) by a corresponding operand value Wi and calculates the accumulated sum of multiplication results. The pulse width/digital conversion circuit (9) includes a counter (10) which counts a clock and outputs a count value as a digital signal, and n trailing edge latch circuits (11-0-11-(n?1)) each of which latches a common count value output from the counter at the trailing edge of the input pulse signal.

Abstract: The phase-locked loop circuit includes a gain setting circuit for setting a gain of a voltage controlled oscillator, and a time-constant setting circuit for setting a time constant, which is determined by the amount of current in a charge pump circuit and a capacitance value of a loop filter. The gain setting circuit sets the gain to a predetermined value, and the time-constant setting circuit sets the time constant to a predetermined value, whereby the loop band width of the phase-locked loop circuit is set to a desired value.

Abstract: In a flash A/D converter including a plurality of differential amplifier circuits and a plurality of voltage comparator circuits, a regulator circuit is provided. The regulator circuit automatically regulates a bias voltage of each of the plurality of differential amplifier circuits in a differential amplifier circuit array to make an output dynamic range for the differential amplifier circuits match an input dynamic range for the plurality of voltage comparator circuits. Therefore, even if the input dynamic range for the voltage comparator circuits is narrowed with reduction in a power supply voltage, the output dynamic range for the differential amplifier circuits and the input dynamic range for the voltage comparator circuits match, thus resulting in a high A/D conversion accuracy.

Abstract: A pseudo-image signal producing section produces a pseudo-image signal imitating an actual image signal. An amplitude detection section detects the amplitude of the pseudo-image signal having passed through a complex filter circuit. A filter control section controls an element value control section in the complex filter circuit so as to decrease the detected amplitude. The element value control section performs an element value adjustment so that absolute element values of a pair of elements corresponding to each other in two filter circuits in the complex filter circuit increase/decrease in opposite directions.

Abstract: In a flash A/D converter including a plurality of differential amplifier circuits and a plurality of voltage comparator circuits, a regulator circuit is provided. The regulator circuit automatically regulates a bias voltage of each of the plurality of differential amplifier circuits in a differential amplifier circuit array to make an output dynamic range for the differential amplifier circuits match an input dynamic range for the plurality of voltage comparator circuits. Therefore, even if the input dynamic range for the voltage comparator circuits is narrowed with reduction in a power supply voltage, the output dynamic range for the differential amplifier circuits and the input dynamic range for the voltage comparator circuits match, thus resulting in a high A/D conversion accuracy.

Abstract: Analog inputs to a controllable stage can be switched by an input selecting section, while digital inputs to a D/A converter in the controllable stage can also be switched. An error calculation section calculates an error in the output of the pipelined A/D converter caused by an error in the analog output of the controllable stage, based on the output of the pipelined A/D converter produced when the controllable stage is in a given input state, and an expected value thereof. A correction value generation section generates a correction value for correcting the output of the pipelined A/D converter, based on the calculated error. An output correction section corrects the output of a digital calculation section based on the generated correction value.

Abstract: Two capacitors in a variable stage are controlled from outside to function as a feedback capacitor and a sampling capacitor, respectively. With a test signal being supplied to the variable stage from an input selecting section, a stage evaluation section estimates an error in the output of the variable stage based on a difference between the digital outputs of an output correction section produced in two situations in which the functions of the two capacitors in the variable stage are switched. A correction value calculation section calculates a digital correction value for each variable stage based on the estimated error and an intermediate output of a digital calculation section. The output correction section corrects the digital output of the digital calculation section based on these digital correction values.

Abstract: In a low-pass filter, the filter characteristics equivalent to those of a conventional low-pass filter are maintained, the size of a capacitive element is decreased, and the low-pass filter operates stably. Further, a MOS capacitor is used as a capacitive element. For such purposes, in a low-pass filter including a first capacitive element, and a resistive element and a second capacitive element which are connected in series to the first capacitive element, a first electric current is supplied to the first input terminal connected to one end of the first capacitive element, and a second electric current is supplied to the second input terminal connected to the other end of the first capacitive element. Herein, the capacitance value of the first capacitive element is set according to the magnitude of the first electric current.

Abstract: An arithmetic circuit to calculate a cumulative value of results of parallel arithmetic processing, in which the increase of the circuit area for multiple-term arithmetic computation and the degradation of accuracy of holding of computation results in a short time can be prevented. The arithmetic circuit has plural analog arithmetic circuits (1) to perform arithmetic processing based on input analog signals, a capacitor (2) to hold a charge amount proportional to a total sum of results of computations by the plural analog arithmetic circuits (1), an A/D conversion circuit (3) to convert the charge amount stored in the capacitor (2) to digital data, and a digital arithmetic circuit (4) to calculate a cumulative value based on the converted digital data.

Abstract: A product-sum operation circuit includes a sorting block (4) which outputs a plurality of operand values x1, x2, . . . xi in descending or ascending order of magnitude, and an operation unit (1) which multiplies each operand value xi output from the sorting block (4) by a corresponding operand value Wi and calculates the accumulated sum of multiplication results.

Abstract: A product-sum operation circuit includes a pulse width/digital conversion circuit (9) which converts a pulse signal having a pulse width representing an operand value into a digital signal, a sorting circuit (4) which outputs, in descending or ascending order of magnitude, a plurality of operand values Xi converted into digital signals by the pulse width/digital conversion circuit (9), and an accumulated sum circuit (1) which multiplies each operand value output from the sorting circuit (4) by a corresponding operand value Wi and calculates the accumulated sum of multiplication results. The pulse width/digital conversion circuit (9) includes a counter (10) which counts a clock and outputs a count value as a digital signal, and n trailing edge latch circuits (11-0-11-(n?1)) each of which latches a common count value output from the counter at the trailing edge of the input pulse signal.