Audio Amplifier Circuit Reducing Mismatch Errors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing audio amplifier circuits experience mismatch errors between switched signals due to inherent variations in processing circuit elements, leading to undesirable audio artifacts like cracks or pops during power up and degradation of sound quality.
Innovation Solution
A circuit configuration with at least three processing circuits and a controller circuit that switches one switched signal to an unassociated processing circuit at specified intervals, such as signal transitions, to distribute and average out errors among the signals, thereby reducing mismatch effects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple processing circuits are used to process switched signals, then processing capacity and signal handling capability are improved, but mismatch errors between circuits degrade audio quality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic switching of processing circuits based on detected signal transitions. The controller monitors switched signals and periodically changes which processing circuit handles which signal, transforming a static circuit assignment into a dynamic one. This allows the system to adaptively manage mismatch errors by redistributing signals across circuits over time, maintaining both high processing capacity and improved signal matching accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller performs periodic detection of switched signal transitions and periodically switches the association between signals and processing circuits. This periodic action ensures that mismatch errors are systematically distributed across different circuit-signal pairings over time, preventing any single circuit's inherent variations from consistently degrading a particular signal's quality.
2Device complexity
If processing circuits are kept static during operation, then system complexity is reduced, but mismatch errors create audible artifacts
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the inherent transition points in the switched signals themselves as triggers for circuit switching. Rather than requiring an external complex control mechanism, the controller detects natural signal transitions and uses these events to switch processing circuits. This self-service approach leverages the signal's own characteristics to drive the error-distribution mechanism, adding minimal complexity while effectively reducing audible artifacts.
3Manufacturing precision
If signal switching between processing circuits is implemented, then mismatch errors are averaged out, but additional control circuitry is required
Solution Approach 1:
The controller circuit performs multiple functions: it monitors switched signals for transitions, determines when switching should occur, executes the switching of signal-circuit associations, and manages the timing of these operations. By consolidating these control functions into a single multi-functional controller, the patent achieves effective error averaging without requiring separate dedicated circuits for each control task, thereby limiting the increase in overall system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A circuit for diminishing mismatch effects between at least two switched signals includes at least three processing circuits configured to receive at least two switched signals such that each of the switched signals is associated with one of the processing circuits leaving at least one unassociated processing circuit. A controller circuit is configured to switch one of the switched signals to be associated with one of the unassociated processing circuit(s) upon at least one specified interval such as, for example, at a transition of the switched signal. The circuit may be incorporated into an audio amplifier configured to provide information carried on the switched signals to one or more speakers that provide an audio output. A one-processor circuit approach includes switching frames of a switched signal between positive and negative inputs of a processor circuit to average out errors introduced by the processor circuit.