DC Voltage Measurement Using Disturbance Signal Averaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional DC voltage meters using analog-to-digital converters have limited precision, leading to inaccurate measurements of battery voltage levels in portable electronic devices, as they cannot detect voltage variations below their precision level, resulting in delayed notification of battery depletion.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that adds a temporary disturbance signal with an amplitude greater than the converter's precision level to the input DC voltage, converting it to a disturbed signal, sampling, and calculating an average value to enhance measurement precision, utilizing a disturbance circuit, analog-to-digital converter, and controller to output a more accurate digital value.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If an analog-to-digital converter is used to measure DC voltage, then the measurement can be converted to digital format for display, but the measurement precision is limited by the converter's precision level
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies periodic action by adding a temporary disturbance signal to the DC voltage input, which periodically modulates the voltage level. This allows the analog-to-digital converter to capture multiple discrete samples that, when averaged, provide higher precision measurement than the converter's native precision level would allow.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a disturbance signal as an intermediary element between the DC voltage source and the analog-to-digital converter. This intermediary signal enables the converter to resolve voltage levels below its precision threshold by encoding sub-precision information in the timing and amplitude of the disturbed signal samples.
2Measurement precision
If the analog-to-digital converter precision level is increased, then measurement precision improves, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameters of the input signal by superimposing a temporary disturbance signal on the DC voltage. This parameter modification allows a lower-resolution analog-to-digital converter to effectively achieve higher measurement precision through statistical processing of multiple samples, avoiding the need for a higher-resolution (and more complex/expensive) converter.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention provides a method for DC voltage measurement. First, an input DC voltage is received. A temporary disturbance signal is then added to the input DC voltage to obtain a disturbed signal, wherein an amplitude of the temporary disturbance signal is greater than precision level of an analog-to-digital converter. The disturbed signal is then converted from analog to digital with the analog-to-digital converter to obtain a plurality of samples with different values. An average value is then derived from the samples. Finally, the average value is output as a measurement value of the input DC voltage.