The present invention relates to noise shaping, especially although not
exclusively for digital audio signal processing; and in particular for
PCM-PWM converters in a digital amplifier. The present invention provides
a Converter for converting a pulse coded modulation (PCM) digital audio
signal to a pulse width modulated (PWM) digital audio signal for
amplification in a digital amplifier; the Converter comprising: a word
length reduction circuit for quantising an N-bit input signal sample into
an n-bit output signal sample; the circuit comprising: an input for
receiving the N-bit input signal samples; a quantiser coupled to the
input, and arranged to output an n-bit signal corresponding to the N-bit
input sample signal; a feedback loop comprising a loop filter coupled
between the output of the quantiser and the word length reduction circuit
input, the loop filter having a second feedback loop coupled between the
output and the input of the loop filter; and a modulator for converting
the PCM signals to PWM signals, the modulator coupled to the output of
the quantising circuit. There is also provided an improved lineariser
which combines an interpolator to determine intermediate samples and
straight line approximations between all the samples to determine a more
accurate cross point for linearising the output sample values.