Data Converters: an Empirical Research on the Correlation between Scientific Literature and Patenting Activity

摘要

The increasing use of digital techniques to manage information has inevitably led to a fast development of data converters (DCs). Even if much has been published on specific DC architectures, very few studies investigate their evolution in the last decades. This paper analyzes the developments in DCs and DC-based systems over the last 40 years, by adopting an empirical evidence-based approach. The research methodology follows two different paths: an academic literature review, performed through a chronological and a citation/co-citation study, and a patent analysis. The aim of this paper is to answer three specific research questions: 1.What is the relevant academic literature discussing DCs and how has it been evolving over the last 4 decades? 2.How extended is the patenting activity on DCs, and how has it been evolving over the last 4 decades? 3.Is the scientific publication trend corresponding to the patent registration trend? The research results highlight similar exponential growing trends in the evidences about the evolution of DCs, both in the academic and in the industrial sectors. The first two research questions are addressed by observing the growing number of international papers published in the main scientific journals covering this subject, coherently with a correlated intensification in DC patenting activities. The found correlation provides a positive answer to the third research question.