MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY INCORPORATED Patent applications |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20160134258 | Switchable Filtering Circuit And The Operation Method Using The Same - The disclosure provides a switchable filtering circuit and the related operation method, in particular related to a filtering circuit which can be used for Bluetooth system and wireless local area network system. By using a first switch, a hybrid filtering circuit and a second switch, the received mode and transmitted mode between these two systems is realized. Moreover, the frequency responses and the bandwidth adjustments can be controlled according to the plurality of switchable resistors, the plurality of switchable capacitors and the shared and switchable resistors within the hybrid filter circuit. Moreover, the effects of high operated freedom of the circuit and the circuit size reduction can be achieved. | 05-12-2016 |
20160118308 | Method And Apparatus For Semiconductor Testing At Low Temperature - A method for testing a plurality of semiconductor devices arranged on a strip may include forming an array of semiconductor devices on a frame, wherein contact pads of adjacent semiconductor devices are shorted, partially cutting the strip to electrically isolate individual semiconductor devices in the array, placing the strip on an adhesive tape configured to withstand low temperatures (e.g., below −20° C. or below −50° C.), arranging the strip and tape on a test chuck, exposing the test chuck, strip, and tape to temperatures below an ambient temperature and testing the plurality of semiconductor devices while exposed to a low temperature. In one embodiment a KAPTON™ film is used as the adhesive tape. | 04-28-2016 |
20160112060 | ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERSION WITH MICRO-CODED SEQUENCER - A micro-coded sequencer controls complex conversion sequences independent of a central processing unit (CPU). Micro-coding provides for easily adding new process steps and/or updating existing process steps. Such a programmable sequencer in combination with an analog-to-digital conversion module such as an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) or a charge time measurement unit (CTMU), and digital processing circuits may be configured to work independently of the CPU in combination with the micro-coded sequencer. Thereby providing self-sufficient operation in low power modes when the CPU and other high power modules are in a low power sleep mode. Such a peripheral can execute data collection and processing thereof, then wake the CPU only when needed, thereby saving power. Furthermore, this peripheral does not require CPU processing so that time critical applications that do require control by the CPU can operate more efficiently and with less operating overhead burden. | 04-21-2016 |
20160109488 | MEASURING OUTPUT CURRENT IN A BUCK SMPS - A sample and hold circuit takes a sample of the current flowing through an inductor of a buck switched-mode power supply (SMPS) at substantially the middle of the low side portion (50 percent point during low side switch ON) of the pulse width modulation (PWM) period. This sample of the current through the SMPS inductor during the low side ON 50% point may be considered as the “average” or “DC output” current of the SMPS, and taken every time at precisely the same low side ON 50%. A constant current source and sink are used to charge and discharge a timing capacitor whose voltage charge is monitored by a high speed voltage comparator to provide precise sample timing. | 04-21-2016 |
20160103772 | SIDE CHANNEL ACCESS THROUGH USB STREAMS - A system may provide side channel access of a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device using USB streams. The system may include a USB interface with a USB device controller, an internal bus, a logical unit number (LUN) arbiter coupled between the USB controller and the internal bus, and a secondary interface coupled with the LUN arbiter. The system may include a plurality of storage devices coupled to the internal bus. The system may provide access to the storage devices via both the USB device controller and the secondary interface. The LUN arbiter may accept a plurality of USB streams (e.g., storage device access requests) from the USB device controller and at least one additional USB stream (e.g., storage device access request) from the secondary interface. The LUN arbiter may determine a priority of access between USB streams originating from the USB device controller and the secondary interface. | 04-14-2016 |
20160099348 | HIGH VOLTAGE DOUBLE-DIFFUSED MOS (DMOS) DEVICE AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURE - A method of forming an integrated DMOS transistor/EEPROM cell includes forming a first mask over a substrate, forming a drift implant in the substrate using the first mask to align the drift implant, simultaneously forming a first floating gate over the drift implant, and a second floating gate spaced apart from the drift implant, forming a second mask covering the second floating gate and covering a portion of the first floating gate, forming a base implant in the substrate using an edge of the first floating gate to self-align the base implant region, and simultaneously forming a first control gate over the first floating gate and a second control gate over the second floating gate. The first floating gate, first control gate, drift implant, and base implant form components of the DMOS transistor, and the second floating gate and second control gate form components of the EEPROM cell. | 04-07-2016 |
20160098909 | Differential Current Measurements To Determine Ion Current In The Presence Of Leakage Current - An ion chamber provides a current representative of its characteristics as affected by external conditions, e.g., clean air or smoke. A direct current (DC) voltage is applied to the ion chamber at a first polarity and the resulting current through the ion chamber and parasitic leakage current is measured at the first polarity, then the DC voltage is applied to the ion chamber at a second polarity opposite the first polarity, and the resulting current through the ion chamber and parasitic leakage current is measured at the second polarity. Since substantially no current flows through the ion chamber at the second polarity, the common mode parasitic leakage current contribution may be removed from the total current measurement by subtracting the current measured at the second polarity from the current measured at the first polarity, resulting in just the current through the ion chamber. | 04-07-2016 |
20160094193 | SELECTABLE PROGRAMMABLE GAIN OR OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIER - An integrated circuit amplifier configurable to be either a programmable gain amplifier or an operational amplifier comprises two output blocks, one output block is optimized for programmable gain amplifier operation, and the other output block is optimized for operational amplifier applications. A common single input stage, input offset calibration and bias generation circuits are used with either amplifier configuration. Thus duplication of the input stage, offset calibration and bias generation circuits are eliminated while still selectably providing for either a programmable gain amplifier or operational amplifier configuration. | 03-31-2016 |
20160093632 | HIGH VOLTAGE DOUBLE-DIFFUSED MOS (DMOS) DEVICE AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURE - A method of forming an integrated DMOS transistor/EEPROM cell includes forming a first mask over a substrate, forming a drift implant in the substrate using the first mask to align the drift implant, simultaneously forming a first floating gate over the drift implant, and a second floating gate spaced apart from the drift implant, forming a second mask covering the second floating gate and covering a portion of the first floating gate, forming a base implant in the substrate using an edge of the first floating gate to self-align the base implant region, and simultaneously forming a first control gate over the first floating gate and a second control gate over the second floating gate. The first floating gate, first control gate, drift implant, and base implant form components of the DMOS transistor, and the second floating gate and second control gate form components of the EEPROM cell. | 03-31-2016 |
20160079527 | Resistive Memory Cell Having A Spacer Region For Reduced Conductive Path Area / Enhanced Electric Field - A method of forming a resistive memory cell, e.g., CBRAM or ReRAM, includes forming a bottom electrode layer, forming an oxide region of an exposed area of the bottom electrode, removing a region of the bottom electrode layer proximate the oxide region to form a bottom electrode having a pointed tip or edge region. An electrically insulating mini-spacer region is formed adjacent the bottom electrode, and an electrolyte region and top electrode are formed over the bottom electrode and mini-spacer element(s) to define a memory element. The memory element defines a conductive filament/vacancy chain path from the bottom electrode pointed tip region to the top electrode via the electrolyte region. The mini-spacer elements decreases the effective area, or “confinement zone,” for the conductive filament/vacancy chain path, which may improve the device characteristics, and may provide an improvement over techniques that rely on enhanced electric field forces. | 03-17-2016 |
20160066372 | Apparatus And Method For LED Running Light Control And Status - A light emitting diode (LED) running light comprises a current sink and a plurality of series coupled LED block cells; each of the plurality of LED block cells comprising a LED and a bypass circuit to the current sink, wherein each series coupled LED sequentially turns on (lights) when a voltage source increases by additive voltage increments of at least the turn-on voltage of each LED in the series coupled string until all LEDs are on (lit). The current sink maintains a desired current value through the LEDs and may also be used to provide waveforms for diagnostic and timing purposes | 03-03-2016 |
20160056626 | Method And System For Ground Plane Isolation - A system has a plurality of circuits each having an individual ground connection. The system further has a common ground connection connected with each ground connection of each circuit of the plurality of circuits via an associated isolation circuit, wherein each isolation circuit has: an NMOS transistor having a load path connecting the common ground connection with an individual ground connection of an associated circuit, and having a gate connection receiving an activation signal, and a first shunt resistor coupled in parallel with the load path. | 02-25-2016 |
20160054786 | LOW POWER CONNECTION DETECT METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR USB CHARGING - A USB hub has a USB hub controller, and an embedded controller, a USB port connector and associated port power control device and a controllable bypass switch providing a supply voltage to the USB port connector when the embedded controller enables it, a controllable voltage supply regulator unit providing a first output voltage which can be turned off and supplied to the port power control device, and a programmable current monitor circuit with a current sensor providing a second supply voltage to the monitor circuit, wherein during a low power mode, the USB hub controller and any port power control device are turned off and the monitor circuit is configured to provide the second supply voltage through the sensor and bypass switch to the USB connector and detects a current when a USB device is plugged into the USB port connector and wakes up the embedded controller. | 02-25-2016 |
20160028413 | 2-PHASE SWITCHED CAPACITOR FLASH ADC - An input stage for a switched capacitor analog-to-digital converter has a differential voltage input receiving an input voltage, a differential reference voltage input receiving a chopped reference voltage, a common voltage connection, and a differential output. A pair of input capacitors is coupled between the differential voltage input and the differential output and a pair of reference capacitors is coupled between the differential reference voltage input. A switching unit is controlled by a first and second phase operable during the first phase to connect a first terminal of the input capacitors with the common voltage connection and couple the first terminal of the reference capacitors with the inverted differential voltage reference; and during a second phase to connect the first terminal of the input capacitors with the differential input voltage and couple the first terminal of the reference capacitors with the non-inverted differential voltage reference | 01-28-2016 |
20150380298 | Air-Gap Assisted Etch Self-Aligned Dual Damascene - A semiconductor process for providing a metal layer uses the following steps: A barrier dielectric layer is deposited on a semiconductor layer comprising an exposed metal line. A via layer is formed on top of the barrier dielectric layer comprising at least one via. A non-conformal film is deposited on top of the via layer thereby forming a void in the at least one via, and at least one trench is etched into the non-conformal film thereby opening the void, and creating a dual-damascene layer. | 12-31-2015 |
20150378482 | Compensation Of A Target Object Coupling To Feeding Lines In Capacitive Sensing System - An input device has one or more electrodes configured for capacitive sensing, an electronic circuit, one or more conductive feed line(s) connecting the one or more electrode(s) with the electronic circuit, wherein the device is configured to increase or decrease a signal received from at least one of the electrodes through an associated feed line in function of at least one other signal from another electrode. | 12-31-2015 |
20150356039 | Device And Method To Assign Device Pin Functionality For Multi-Processor Core Devices - An embedded device has a plurality of processor cores, each with a plurality of peripheral devices, wherein each peripheral device may have an output, a housing with a plurality of assignable external pins, and a plurality of peripheral pin selection modules for each processing core, wherein each peripheral pin selection module is configured to be programmable to assign an assignable external pin to one of the plurality of peripheral devices of one of the processor cores. | 12-10-2015 |
20150356037 | Device And Method To Assign Device Pin Ownership For Multi-Processor Core Devices - An embedded device has a plurality of processor cores, each with a plurality of peripheral devices, wherein each peripheral device has an output. Furthermore, a housing with a plurality of assignable external pins and a protected pin ownership logic for each assignable external pin is provided and configured to be programmable to assign an output function of an associated assignable external pin to only one of the plurality of processor cores. | 12-10-2015 |
20150334796 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVING LED LIFETIME AND COLOR QUALITY IN DIMMING APPARATUS - In a pulse width modulation light emitting diode (LED) controller an error amplifier and output load switch are synchronously controlled to prevent service life shortening current overshoot through the LEDs and slowing discharging currents causing color temperature shifting in the light output from the LEDs. A plurality of switching arrangements for the error amplifier and the compensation network may be provided in a single integrated circuit LED dimming controller, and outputs for controlling a variety of differently configured output power switch combinations for disconnecting or shorting the LEDs, or disconnecting the output capacitor during off times of the modulated dimming control signal. | 11-19-2015 |
20150331830 | Unifying Class Device Interface With One Host Interface By Using Embedded Controller - A system, device and method for communicating between a host device and a plurality of peripheral devices wherein the communications utilize a single interface that is supported by the host. The host includes a plurality of class drivers and miniport drivers. Each of the class drivers implements functionality associated with one or more of the plurality of peripheral devices. Each miniport driver provides an interface by which one or more of the class drivers communicate with one or more of the plurality peripheral devices using class protocols, wherein the miniport drivers communicate through a single host interface supported by the host. An embedded controller interfaces with the plurality of peripheral devices using the respective native bus protocols of the peripheral devices and wherein the embedded controller interfaces with the plurality of miniport drivers using the single host interface. | 11-19-2015 |
20150331826 | SWITCHLESS USB C-CONNECTOR HUB - A USB hub integrated circuit device, comprising USB hub logic comprising a plurality USB ports, wherein at least one port comprises a pair of bi-directional transmission channels, wherein for the at least one port two physical layers are provided in parallel, each physical layer being associated with one bidirectional transmission channel, wherein the USB hub logic is further configured to select one of said physical layers for each port depending on a logic condition. | 11-19-2015 |
20150331064 | CIRCUIT FOR MEASURING POWER VIOLATIONS USING HIGH SIDE CURRENT SENSING - A power monitoring circuit and method for detecting deviations in the output of a power supply. The power monitor is configured to detect and measure two different types of deviations: transient deviations short surges or spikes in the current drawn by the device being powered and prolonged deviations over a threshold current that may be intentional, temporary increases in the output of the power supply. The power monitor collects information such as the number of each type of deviation, the duration of each deviation and the peak current describing identified deviations. This collected information can then be used, especially during the development phase, to locate the root cause of the deviation. The components of the power monitor used to detect and measure these deviations may be disabled and enabled as needed. | 11-19-2015 |
20150323979 | USB POWER PORT CONTROL - A system, method and device for providing over-current protection to USB ports comprised in a USB hub, whereby a single switch is used to control the power supply to one or more groups of USB ports based on determinations whether the current drawn by a group of USB ports has exceeded a predefined current limit. Embodiments provide the cost savings associated with gang mode power port switching and the reduced stress on USB components and individualized protection of USB ports associated with individual mode power switching. Embodiments utilize a plurality of current measurement units to measure the current drawn by each group of USB ports supported by a switch and further utilize a power port control logic unit to control the switch based on whether the current measurements have exceeded a current limit. | 11-12-2015 |
20150318728 | Port Disconnect Charging Function for USB HUB - A Universal Serial Bus (USB) hub includes a first port that is configured to be switched from a downstream port to an upstream port; a plurality of other ports; and a controller configured to switch a function of the first port from the downstream port to the upstream port responsive to a command from an attached device and further configured to switch at least one of the plurality of other ports from a data and charge port into a port dedicated to charging | 11-05-2015 |
20150318599 | COAXIAL DATA COMMUNICATION WITH REDUCED EMI - Data communication having improved electromagnetic interference (EMI) rejection when communicating through a coaxial cable is provided by using differential transmission and/or reception through a common-mode choke and a dissipative element resulting in extremely low radiated emissions and high immunity to external radiation interference in a low-cost way. | 11-05-2015 |
20150312860 | WIRELESS QUIET ENROLMENT - In a wireless media network a source device provides entertainment content to a sink device over a radio frequency (RF) wireless channel. The source device can go into a receive only quiet enrolment mode until activated by a sink device transmitting enrolment trigger packets or having a signal strength above a certain threshold, thereby improving coexistence with other wireless devices. The source device changes from the quiet enrolment mode to an active enrolment mode when activated by the sink device. | 10-29-2015 |
20150309953 | FLEXCONNECT DISCONNECT DETECTION - A USB hub includes a plurality of downstream ports; at least one dual mode port, the dual mode port configured to be switchable from a downstream port to an upstream port; and host detection circuitry for detecting whether, when operating as an upstream port, a host is connected. | 10-29-2015 |
20150303902 | RAMP GENERATION MODULE - A digitally controlled ramp generator has a constant current source, a first controllable switch coupled between the constant current source and an output node, a capacitor coupled with the output node, a second controllable switch coupled with the output node, a constant current sink coupled with the second controllable switch, and a control unit. The control unit is configured in a first operating mode to select control signals for the first and second controllable switch to generate a rising waveform by charging said capacitor through the first controllable switch and a falling waveform by discharging the capacitor through the second controllable switch wherein the control signals can be selected from the group of a time based control signal and a voltage based control signal. A variety of other control modes may be provided. | 10-22-2015 |
20150249446 | SYSTEM, METHOD AND APPARATUS HAVING IMPROVED PULSE WIDTH MODULATION FREQUENCY RESOLUTION - Using a combination of frequency dithering of a PWM counter and a variable time delay circuit yields improved PWM frequency resolution with realizable circuit components and clock operating frequencies. A controllable time delay circuit lengthens a PWM signal during the first PWM cycle. During the second PWM cycle, the PWM period is increased beyond the desired amount, but the delay is reduced during this second PWM cycle to achieve the correct (desired) PWM signal period. The dithering of the PWM signal period enables the time delay circuit to be “reset” so that an infinite delay circuit is not required. The time delay circuit provides short term (one cycle) frequency adjustment so that the resulting PWM cycle is not dithered and has a period at the desired frequency resolution. | 09-03-2015 |
20150249050 | FORMING FENCE CONDUCTORS USING SPACER ETCHED TRENCHES - A spacer etching process produces ultra-narrow conductive lines in a plurality of semiconductor dice. Trenches are formed in a first dielectric then a sacrificial film is deposited onto the first dielectric and the trench surfaces formed therein. Planar sacrificial film is removed from the face of the first dielectric and bottom of the trenches, leaving only sacrificial films on the trench walls. A gap between the sacrificial films on the trench walls is filled in with a second dielectric. A portion of the second dielectric is removed to expose tops of the sacrificial films. The sacrificial films are removed leaving ultra-thin gaps that are filled in with a conductive material. The tops of the conductive material in the gaps are exposed to create “fence conductors.” Portions of the fence conductors and surrounding insulating materials are removed at appropriate locations to produce desired conductor patterns comprising isolated fence conductors. | 09-03-2015 |
20150219474 | DIGITAL PERIOD DIVIDER - A system may have a digital period divider generating an output signal that is proportional to an angle defined by a rotational input signal and an interval measurement unit determining an interval time of an interval defined by succeeding pulses of the input output signal. In an enhancement, the system may also have a missing pulse detector which is operable to compare a current interval with a parameter to determine whether a pulse is missing in the input signal. | 08-06-2015 |
20150162944 | Proximity Detection Using an Antenna and Directional Coupler Switch - Detection of an increase in a mismatch of an antenna of a radio frequency (RF) device and/or a change in a capacitance value of the antenna indicates proximity of a body to the antenna. Upon detection of proximity of a body to the antenna, reduction of transmit power of the RF device may be done to meet Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) level regulations. | 06-11-2015 |
20150162943 | Proximity Detection Using an Antenna and Directional Coupler Switch - Detection of an increase in a mismatch of an antenna of a radio frequency (RF) device and/or a change in a capacitance value of the antenna indicates proximity of a body to the antenna. Upon detection of proximity of a body to the antenna, reduction of transmit power of the RF device may be done to meet Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) level regulations. | 06-11-2015 |
20140281473 | Minimizing Switchover Time In A Hot Swappable Program Memory - A method for hot swapping program code includes defining a predetermined range of new code from which to execute; identifying from the new code one or more system components which require a reinitialization or reset; reinitializing or resetting the one or more system components; and executing the new code. | 09-18-2014 |
20140281049 | Combined Power and Input/Output Line - An electronic device including a host system including a source; and a target system operably coupled to the host system via a combined power I/O line; wherein the target system includes a pass transistor and a switching system cooperative to allow the source to charge a power supply capacitor on the target system via the combined power I/O line in a first mode and alternately charge and discharge the power supply capacitor during a communication via the combined power I/O line in a second mode, wherein the alternately charging and discharging is in synchronization with said communication. | 09-18-2014 |
20140269996 | Multi-Current Harmonized Paths for Low Power Local Interconnect Network (LIN) Receiver - A LIN receiver includes a single, low power structure for both sleep and silent modes, with a single comparator for detecting LIN signaling during both sleep and silent modes as well as during active mode. In some embodiments, full receiving capability is implemented with a current as low as 5 microamps. In particular, dominant and recessive levels for the wakeup bloc are identical to those of standard LIN levels, fixed at about 3.5 V. Consequently, full LIN receiving capability is available during sleep mode. | 09-18-2014 |
20140269102 | EEPROM MEMORY CELL WITH LOW VOLTAGE READ PATH AND HIGH VOLTAGE ERASE/WRITE PATH - An electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) cell may include a substrate including at least one active region, a floating gate adjacent the substrate, a write/erase gate defining a write/erase path for performing high voltage write and erase operations, and a read gate defining a read path for performing low voltage read operations, wherein the read path is distinct from the write/erase path. This allows for a smaller read gate oxide, thus allowing the cell size to be reduced. Further, the EEPROM cell may include two independently controllable read gates, thereby defining two independent transistors which allows better programming voltage isolation. This allows the memory array to be drawn using a common source instead of each column of EEPROM cells needing its own source line. This makes the array more scalable because the cell x-dimension would otherwise be limited by each column needing two metal 1 pitches. | 09-18-2014 |
20140267187 | Electrostatics Stylus - A handheld, stylus-type input device for interfacing with a touch screen having an array of sensor nodes (e.g., a capacitive touch screen) may include a handheld body having a first end, a tip at the first end, an electrode arranged at least partially within the body, and a circuit configured to produce an electrical potential on the electrode to generate an electric field proximate the stylus tip. When the stylus tip is placed in contact with the touch screen, the electric field activates one or more sensor nodes outside of a physical contact area between the tip and the touch screen, producing an effect on the sensor nodes similar to that of a finger or other object having a larger contact area with the touch screen than the stylus, thus providing activation of the touch screen while providing better view of the screen near the point of contact. | 09-18-2014 |
20140267138 | Capacitive Based Gesture Input System - A liquid crystal display with integrated capacitive touch sensors has an LCD display with at least one alphanumerical or graphic symbol, and at least one capacitive touch sensor arranged above a display layer or within transparent layers of the LCD display forming the alphanumerical or graphical symbol. | 09-18-2014 |
20140267039 | Knob Based Gesture System - A knob or joystick apparatus detects gesture based actions of a user's fingers and/or hand. A user grasps the knob or joystick and moves the knob or joystick in either rotational direction, e.g., clockwise or counter clockwise, moves the knob or joystick horizontally/vertically or any combination thereof, and/or presses or pulls the knob or joystick in or out. Capacitive sensors are used in combination with a digital device, e.g., microcontroller, for detecting, decoding and interpreting therefrom various gesturing movements. A user may grasp a knob and either moves his/her fingers in a rotational, horizontal/vertical, and/or in/out movement(s) along an axis of the knob. During the motion(s) of the user's fingers, portions of an outer covering of the knob are deflected inwards toward capacitive sensors, wherein the movement(s) of the deflected portion(s) of the outer covering are detected, decoded and interpretations are made therefrom of various gesturing movements. | 09-18-2014 |
20140266609 | System and Method for Locating Wireless Nodes - A tracking system includes a network; a plurality of signal sources communicatively coupled to the network, the plurality of signal sources configured to transmit substantially identical signals; and an RFID tag configured to receive the substantially identical signals from the plurality of signal sources, determine points of intersection from hyperbola curves defining phase differences between the substantially identical signals, a point of intersection of three hyperbola curves defining a location of the user device. In some embodiments, the plurality of signal sources comprise a single transmitter and a predetermined plurality of substantially identical antennas coupled to the single transmitter by cables of a substantially same length. | 09-18-2014 |
20140266487 | Low EMI Wide Frequency Range Oscillator With Automatic Digital Amplitude Control - An oscillator/amplifier has a gain controlled amplifier that maintains a desired oscillation waveform amplitude for all possible oscillation frequencies of operation. A peak detector produces a direct current (DC) voltage proportional to the oscillation waveform, and a voltage reference generator provides a reference voltage that is compared against the DC voltage from the peak detector. When the DC voltage is less than the reference voltage the gain of the amplifier is increased, and when the DC voltage is equal to or greater than the reference voltage the gain of the amplifier is decreased. A programmable voltage reference generator may also be used to provide for selection of different oscillation waveform amplitudes. A digital control loop controls the oscillation waveform amplitude over the entire possible frequency range of operation. Various frequency determining elements, e.g., crystal, piezoelectric resonator, inductor-capacitor tuned circuit, resistor-capacitor network, etc., may be used in combination with the oscillator/amplifier. | 09-18-2014 |
20140266261 | Capacitive Sensor Electrode - A capacitive electrode has a flat electrode with a geometric shape, wherein at least one central portion of the electrode is removed to provide for a frame-like form of the electrode. | 09-18-2014 |
20140265866 | Constant Brightness LED Drive Communications Port - A light emitting diode (LED) is driven with a plurality of pulses having controllable pulse widths and positions within clock time periods that provide for both LED light intensity control and digital information communications from a single output node of an integrated circuit (IC) device. The LED light intensity is determined by the duty cycle of the pulses where the human eye integrates these light pulses from the LED into continuous light intensity levels. The digital information contained in the light output from the LED is detected by a photo-detector that converts the light pulses into electric signals that are demodulated and read by a circuit debugger and/or manufacturing test station. The aforementioned operations allow continuous visual display and data transmission using only one output node of the IC device. This is especially advantageous when using low pin count IC devices. | 09-18-2014 |
20140264886 | Forming Fence Conductors Using Spacer Pattern Transfer - A spacer transfer process produces sub-lithographic patterns of conductive lines in a semiconductor die. A dielectric then a conductive material are deposited onto a face of a semiconductor substrate. A sacrificial dielectric is deposited on the conductive material and portions thereof are removed to form at least one trench comprising walls and a bottom exposing the conductive material. A hard mask is deposited over the sacrificial dielectric including the walls and bottom of the trench. Then the hard mask is removed therefrom except from the walls of the trench. Thereafter, the remaining sacrificial dielectric is removed leaving only the hard mask from the walls of the trench. Then all conductive material not protected by the remaining hard mask is removed. Thereafter, the hard mask is removed exposing a sub-lithographic pattern of fence conductors wherein portions thereof are removed at appropriate locations to produce desired conductor patterns comprising isolated fence conductors. | 09-18-2014 |
20140264882 | Forming Fence Conductors Using Spacer Etched Trenches - A spacer etching process produces ultra-narrow conductive lines in a plurality of semiconductor dice. Trenches are formed in a first dielectric then a sacrificial film is deposited onto the first dielectric and the trench surfaces formed therein. Planar sacrificial film is removed from the face of the first dielectric and bottom of the trenches, leaving only sacrificial films on the trench walls. A gap between the sacrificial films on the trench walls is filled in with a second dielectric. A portion of the second dielectric is removed to expose tops of the sacrificial films. The sacrificial films are removed leaving ultra-thin gaps that are filled in with a conductive material. The tops of the conductive material in the gaps are exposed to create “fence conductors.” Portions of the fence conductors and surrounding insulating materials are removed at appropriate locations to produce desired conductor patterns comprising isolated fence conductors. | 09-18-2014 |
20140264796 | Insulated Bump Bonding - A semiconductor power chip, may have a semiconductor die having a power device fabricated on a substrate thereof, wherein the power device has at least one first contact element, a plurality of second contact elements and a plurality of third contact elements arranged on top of the semiconductor die; and an insulation layer disposed on top of the semiconductor die and being patterned to provide openings to access the plurality of second and third contact elements and the at least one first contact element. | 09-18-2014 |
20140264614 | Spacer Enabled Poly Gate - A spacer etching process produces ultra-narrow polysilicon and gate oxides for insulated gates used with insulated gate transistors. Narrow channels are formed using dielectric and spacer film deposition techniques. The spacer film is removed from the dielectric wherein narrow channels are formed therein. Insulating gate oxides are grown on portions of the semiconductor substrate exposed at the bottoms of these narrow channels. Then the narrow channels are filled with polysilicon. The dielectric is removed from the face of the semiconductor substrate, leaving only the very narrow gate oxides and the polysilicon. The very narrow gate oxides and the polysilicon are separated into insulated gates for the insulated gate transistors. | 09-18-2014 |
20140264333 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MONITORING SEMICONDUCTOR FABRICATION - A semiconductor chip for process monitoring of semiconductor fabrication, has a plurality of arrays with a plurality of diodes, each diode being formed in the chip, each diode being associated with a stack with at least one horizontal interconnect, the stack and the diode connected in series to form a diode stack combination, wherein the horizontal interconnect has a salicided polysilicon interconnect comprising complementary doped polysilicon sections to form a reverse biased diode. | 09-18-2014 |
20140264245 | Resistive Memory Cell with Trench-Shaped Bottom Electrode - A resistive memory cell, e.g., a CBRAM or ReRAM cell, may include a top electrode, a bottom electrode having an elongated trench shape defining a pair of spaced-apart bottom electrode sidewalls, and an electrolyte switching region arranged between the top electrode and at least one of the bottom electrode sidewalls to provide a path for the formation of a conductive filament or vacancy chain from the at least one bottom electrode sidewall to the top electrode when a voltage bias is applied to the cell. In addition, a memory may include an array of resistive memory cells including a top electrode structure, a plurality of trench-style bottom electrodes extending in first direction, and a plurality of inverted-trench-style electrolyte switching regions extending perpendicular to the trench-style bottom electrodes to define a two-dimensional array of spaced-apart contact areas between the electrolyte switching regions and the bottom electrodes. | 09-18-2014 |
20140258574 | Two-Wire Serial Interface and Protocol - In a serial transmission method using a two-wire serial interface, a master device transmits a first synchronous serial signal via the two-wire serial interface to wake-up a slave device followed by an asynchronous data transmission on one of the two-wires of the two-wire serial interface. The asynchronous data signal directly controls a function of the slave device. | 09-11-2014 |
20140256272 | OPTIMIZING ISOLATION AND INSERTION LOSS OF A RADIO FREQUENCY SINGLE-POLE-DOUBLE-THROW SWITCH - A single pole double throw (SPDT) switch is fabricated on an integrated circuit (IC) and may comprise two radio frequency (RF) switching devices each having a separate DC blocking capacitor coupled between respective RF switching devices and a common node. A DC connection is provided between the two RF switching devices with a thin electrically conductive line. This thin electrically conductive line provides for increased isolation between the two RF switching devices and decreased insertion loss. The increased isolation and/or decreased insertion loss is accomplished by tuning the thin electrically conductive line through the characteristic impedance of the line when impedance matching conditions are met. Undesired circuit resonance(s) in the SPDT switch may be substantially reduced by using two or more thin electrically conductive lines that further reduce the thin electrically line(s) inductance. | 09-11-2014 |
20140256271 | Reducing Insertion Loss in LNA Bypass Mode by Using a Single-Pole-Triple-Throw Switch in a RF Front End Module - A microwave radio frequency (RF) front end module (FEM) having a low noise amplifier (LNA) with a bypass mode uses a single-pole-triple-throw RF switch that reduces insertion loss to about 1 dB and thereby improves RF receiver sensitivity over existing technology two series connected single-pole-double throw RF switches. The single-pole-triple-throw RF switch may be three metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) RF switches that may be arranged with a common source input and isolated independent drain outputs. The RF switches may be single, double or triple gate MOSFET RF switches. The MOSFET RF switches may also be configured as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) field effect transistor (FET) RF switches. | 09-11-2014 |
20140254630 | Single Wire Analog Output Sensor Architecture - A analog integrated sensor device has an interface with only a single ground line and a single signal line configured to receive power and output an analog value. A power capacitor is coupled between the ground line and the single signal line. An analog sensor circuitry is operable to be powered by the power capacitor and further operable to output an analog output signal on the single signal line once the power capacitor has bee charged sufficiently. | 09-11-2014 |
20140253086 | Using Synchronous Converter in Asynchronous Mode to Prevent Current Reversal During Battery Charging - Efficiency of a switch mode power supply (SMPS) is optimized by operating the SMPS in an asynchronous mode when current being supplied therefrom is less than a certain current value and operating the SMPS in a synchronous mode when the current being supplied therefrom is equal to or greater than the certain current value. When the SMPS is operating in the synchronous mode high-side and low-side power transistors alternately turn on and off. When the SMPS is operating in the asynchronous mode only the high-side power transistor turns on and off and the low-side power transistor remains off. When charging a battery with the SMPS discharge of the battery is eliminated when operating in the asynchronous mode at a low current output. | 09-11-2014 |
20140246925 | Power Grid Load Monitor and Shed Control - A line frequency monitoring and load shedding control apparatus is placed in or closely coupled to a power load and monitors the line frequency of the alternating current electric power source supplying the power load. When a decrease in line frequency is detected, this line frequency monitoring and load shedding control apparatus may interrupt certain portions of the power load, thereby allowing the power source frequency to stabilize. Subsequently, the line frequency monitoring and load shedding control apparatus makes a determination to return operation of the load that was shed to a normal state of operation as the power line frequency recovers to a normal operating frequency. Fixed time delays, e.g., adjustable, programmable, etc., and/or pseudo random time delays may be incorporated to sequentially reconnect the loads back onto the power source, thereby preventing the loads previously shed from being reconnected all at the same time. | 09-04-2014 |
20140246722 | Power MOS Transistor with Improved Metal Contact - A power MOS field effect transistor (FET) has a plurality of transistor cells, each cell having a source region and a drain region to be contacted through a surface of a silicon wafer die. A first dielectric layer is disposed on the surface of the silicon wafer die and a plurality of grooves are formed in the first dielectric layer above the source regions and drain regions, respectively and filled with a conductive material. A second dielectric layer is disposed on a surface of the first dielectric layer and has openings to expose contact areas to said grooves. A metal layer is disposed on a surface of the second dielectric layer and filling the openings, wherein the metal layer is patterned and etched to form separate metal wires connecting each drain region and each source region of the plurality of transistor cells, respectively through the grooves. | 09-04-2014 |
20140240020 | CONFIGURABLE TIME DELAYS FOR EQUALIZING PULSE WIDTH MODULATION TIMING - A plurality of PWM generators have user configurable time delay circuits for each PWM control signal generated therefrom. The time delay circuits are adjusted so that each of the PWM control signals arrive at their associated power transistors at the same time. This may be accomplished by determining a maximum delay time of the PWM control signal that has to traverse the longest propagation time and then setting the delay for that PWM control signal to substantially zero delay. Thereafter, all other delay time settings for the other PWM control signals may be determined by subtracting the propagation time for each of the other PWM control signals from the longest propagation time. Thereby insuring that all of the PWM control signals arrive at their respective power transistor control nodes with substantially the same time relationships as when they left their respective PWM generators. | 08-28-2014 |
20140235216 | USING BODYCOM TO MODIFY THE CONFIGURATION OF A DEVICE BASED UPON CONTEXT - Context of a device is controlled by a short-range wireless connectivity technology that uses the human body to transport wireless signals that may be easily distinguished between proximate locations, e.g., a vehicle driver location and a passenger location. The devices that communicate with this short-range wireless connectivity technology must be within a few centimeters of a user's body. Visual features of the device may be disabled when the user is located in a certain specific location, e.g., driver seat while driving the vehicle. | 08-21-2014 |
20140235033 | NON-CONVENTIONAL METHOD OF SILICON WAFER SAWING USING A PLURALITY OF WAFER SAW ROTATIONAL ANGLES - A silicon wafer saw can be set to either three or four different cutting angle orientations from a zero degree reference to produce integrated circuit dice having corners greater than 90 degrees. Three different saw angle orientations will produce six sided dice, and four different saw cutting angle orientations will produce eight sided dice. | 08-21-2014 |
20140049266 | Signal Processing For A Capacitive Sensor System With Robustness To Noise - A capacitive sensor includes a transmit electrode configured to provide an alternating electric field to a sensor; one or more receive electrodes for detecting variations in the alternating electric field; and an adaptive frequency adjustment unit configured to adjust an operating frequency of the alternating electric field responsive to detection of a noise measure, such as noise power. | 02-20-2014 |
20140040654 | TIMEBASE PERIPHERAL - A microcontroller has a programmable timebase, wherein the timebase has a trigger input to start a timer or counter of the timebase and wherein the timebase can be configured to operate upon receiving a trigger signal in a first mode to generate a plurality of timer/counter event signals until a reset bit in a control register is set and in a second mode to generate a single timer/counter event signal and wherein the timebase can be configured to operate in a third mode to generate a predefined number of timer/counter event signals, wherein the predefined number is defined by a plurality of bits of a register. | 02-06-2014 |
20140035753 | SMOKE DETECTION USING CHANGE IN PERMITTIVITY OF CAPACITOR AIR DIELECTRIC - A capacitor having air dielectric between its plates may be used to detect the presence of smoke and other contaminants in the dielectric air passing over the plates of the capacitor. Smoke from typical fires is mainly composed of unburned carbon that has diffused in the surrounding air and rises with the heat of the fire. The permittivity of the carbon particles is about 10 to 15 times the permittivity of clean air. The addition of the carbon particles into the air creates a change in the permittivity thereof that is large enough to measure by measuring a change in capacitance of the capacitor having the air dielectric through which the air laden carbon particles pass through. | 02-06-2014 |
20130318408 | Processor Device with Instruction Trace Capabilities - A processor device with debug capabilities has a central processing unit, debug circuitry including a trace module and an external interface, wherein the trace module generates a trace stream including information about executed instructions, wherein the trace stream is output through the external interface, and wherein the trace module is further operable to detect a trigger signal and upon detection to insert a trace packet into the generated trace stream. | 11-28-2013 |
20130314263 | Digital-to-Analog-Converter with Resistor Ladder - A digital-to analog-converter (DAC) has a MSB resistor ladder with a plurality of series connected resistors, wherein the MSB resistor ladder is coupled between a first and second reference potential, a LSB resistor ladder with a plurality of series connected resistors, and a plurality of switching units for connecting one of the series connected resistors of the MSB resistor ladder with the LSB resistor ladder, wherein each switching unit has a first switch for connecting a first terminal of an associated MSB resistor with a first terminal of the LSB resistor ladder and a second switch for connecting a second terminal of the associated MSB resistor with a second terminal of the LSB resistor ladder and wherein each switch is configured form a resistor of similar value of the resistors of the LSB resistor ladder when switched on. | 11-28-2013 |
20130297975 | Device Having Configurable Breakpoint Based on Interrupt Status - A processor device with debug capabilities has a central processing unit, an interrupt controller, a status unit operable to be set into a first mode indicating an interrupt has occurred or in a second mode indicating normal execution of code, and a debug unit coupled with said status unit and comprising a configurable breakpoint, wherein a condition can be set that a breakpoint is only activated if the device is operating in an interrupt service routine. | 11-07-2013 |
20130297974 | Processor Device with Reset Condition Trace Capabilities - A processor device with debug capabilities has a central processing unit, debug circuitry including a trace module, a system clock module for providing internal clock signals, and a reset detection unit which during a debug mode prevents the system clock module from receiving a reset signal. | 11-07-2013 |
20130282338 | Method and System for Energy Efficient Measurement of Sensor Signals - A method for measuring sensor signals, has the steps: a) receiving a signal packet with a plurality of sampled sensor signals; b) determining a signal level from the sampled sensor signals; c) determining signal variations within the packet; d) comparing the determined signal variations with a predetermined noise threshold and if the variations are below the noise threshold then using the signal packet for further processing and if the variations are above the noise threshold then summing the signal level and repeating steps a) to c) and determining a predetermined number of repetitions has been reached and if so averaging the summed signal level. | 10-24-2013 |
20130257799 | Method and System for Multi-Touch Decoding - A touch sensor capable of detecting multiple touches thereto is coupled with a digital device having multi-touch decoding capabilities. These multi-touch decoding capabilities comprise touch data acquisition, touch identification, touch tracking and processed touch data output to a device associated with the touch sensor. Touch identification comprises touch location(s) peak detection, touch location(s) nudging and touch location(s) interpolation. Touch data acquisition locates potential touches on the touch sensor. Peak detection identifies where potential touch locations are on the touch sensor. Once a potential touch location(s) has been identified, touch location nudging examines each adjacent location thereto and interpolation examines the adjacent touch location values to generate a higher resolution location of the touch. Touch tracking compares time sequential “frames” of touch identification data and then determines which touches are associated between frames for further processing, e.g., determining gesturing actions. | 10-03-2013 |
20130254476 | Microcontroller with Context Switch - A microprocessor or microcontroller device may have a central processing unit (CPU), a data memory coupled with the CPU, wherein the data memory is divided into a plurality of memory banks, wherein a bank select register determines which memory bank is currently coupled with the CPU. Furthermore, a first and second set of special function registers are provided, wherein upon occurrence of a context switch either the first or the second set of special function register are selected as active context registers for the CPU and the respective other set of special function registers are selected as inactive context registers, wherein at least some of the registers of the active context registers are memory mapped to more than two memory banks of the data memory and wherein all registers of the inactive context registers are memory mapped to at least one memory location within the data memory. | 09-26-2013 |
20130249855 | System and Method to Share Electrodes Between Capacitive Touch Controller and Gesture Detection Device - A system may have a touch controller, a gesture detection device, and a capacitive sensor having at least one first and at least one second electrode, wherein the at least one first electrode is coupled with a controllable generator for supplying an AC signal to the first electrode. Furthermore, a configurable coupling is provided between the at least one second electrode, an input of the touch controller and an input of the gesture detection device, wherein the coupling can be configured to allow the system to perform a touch detection from signals received from the second electrode by the touch controller in a first configuration mode and to perform a gesture detection from signals received from the second electrode by the gesture detection device in a second configuration mode. | 09-26-2013 |
20130246800 | Enhancing Security of Sensor Data for a System Via an Embedded Controller - System and method for securing sensor data in a computer system that includes a host processor and memory that stores an operating system, and an embedded controller coupled to the host processor. The embedded processor receives sensor data for a user from at least one sensor, and encrypts and/or digitally signs the sensor data, thereby generating protected sensor data, or performs pattern recognition on the sensor data, thereby generating user identification data. The embedded processor then sends the protected sensor data or the user identification data to the operating system or another process coupled to the computer system. The protected sensor data or the user identification data are used for secure transmission of the sensor data. | 09-19-2013 |
20130241626 | INPUT CAPTURE PERIPHERAL WITH GATING LOGIC - A microcontroller has an input capture peripheral, wherein the input capture peripheral is configured to store timer values of an associated timer in a memory and wherein the input capture peripheral has a gating input which controls whether an input capture function is activated. | 09-19-2013 |
20130234623 | Constant Current Output Sink Or Source - A constant current output sink or source eliminates a current limiting series resistor for a light emitting diode (LED) and maintains a constant light intensity from the LED for all operating and manufacturing variables of a digital device since the current through the LED is maintained at a constant value. The constant current output sink or source may be programmable for selection of a constant current value from a plurality of constant current values available. | 09-12-2013 |
20130229385 | Capacitive Touch Sensing and Light Emitting Diode Drive Matrix - A pulse is applied through a capacitive touch key sensor to a sampling capacitor of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The voltage charge arriving at the sampling capacitor will be maximum when there is substantially no shunt capacitance between the capacitive touch key sensor and the sampling capacitor. However, a object such as an operator's finger when in close proximity to the capacitive touch key sensor will create a shunt to ground capacitance that diverts some of the charge that is supposed to go to the sampling capacitor and thereby reducing the voltage charge on the sampling capacitor. This change in charge voltage when the capacitive touch key sensor is activated (touched) may be easily detected with the ADC. In addition, light emitting diode (LED) displays may be integrated with the capacitive touch key sensors and use the same connections on an integrated circuit device in a time division multiplexed manor. | 09-05-2013 |
20130228854 | POWER FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTOR - A field-effect transistors (FET) cell structure has a substrate, an epitaxial layer of a first conductivity type on the substrate, first and second base regions of the second conductivity type arranged within the epitaxial layer or well and spaced apart, and first and second source regions of a first conductivity type arranged within the first and second base region, respectively. Furthermore, a gate structure insulated from the epitaxial layer by an insulation layer is provided and arranged above the region between the first and second base regions and covering at least partly the first and second base region, and a drain contact reaches from a top of the device through the epitaxial layer to couple a top contact or metal layer with the substrate. | 09-05-2013 |
20130223508 | High Resolution Pulse Width Modulator - A pulse width modulator has a first clock source providing a clock signal to a set input of an output controller configured to set a pulse width output signal and having a reset input to reset the pulse width output signal. A duty cycle control unit is coupled with the reset input of the output controller, wherein the duty cycle control unit has a numerical controlled oscillator (NCO) being coupled with a register and configured to provide for a direct digital synthesis to produce a specified frequency according to a value set in the register. Furthermore, logic is provided for receiving a signal from a second clock source and the pulse width output signal to trigger the numerical controlled oscillator. | 08-29-2013 |
20130219189 | Cryptographic Transmission System - A microcontroller includes on-chip key storage slots stored in a non-volatile memory, wherein selecting which key is to be used is restricted to software, wherein a predetermined key storage slot stores a Key Encrypt Key (KEK), and a register flag is provided for determining whether the predetermined key storage slot stores a key for encrypting/decrypting data or the KEK for encrypting/decrypting a key | 08-22-2013 |
20130210477 | Proximity Detection Using an Antenna and Directional Coupler Switch - Detection of an increase in a mismatch of an antenna of a radio frequency (RF) device and/or a change in a capacitance value of the antenna indicates proximity of a body to the antenna. Upon detection of proximity of a body to the antenna, reduction of transmit power of the RF device may be done to meet Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) level regulations. | 08-15-2013 |
20130198500 | PERIPHERAL SPECIAL FUNCTION REGISTER WITH SOFT-RESET DISABLE - A microcontroller has a plurality of peripherals, and at least one control bit, wherein the control bit controls a reset of at least one peripheral such that in a first mode any type of reset resets the at least one peripheral of said plurality of peripherals and in a second mode only a power supply reset resets the at least one peripheral. | 08-01-2013 |
20130195124 | TIMEBASE PERIPHERAL - A microcontroller has a timebase driven by a clock signal, wherein the timebase has a reset input and an output coupled with a comparator. The comparator is further coupled with a register and is operable to generate a synchronization output signal if the timebase matches the register value. The microcontroller further has a first multiplexer receiving the synchronization output signal from the comparator and further receiving at least one event signal generated by a unit other than the timebase, wherein the first multiplexer is operable to select either the synchronization output signal or the at least one event signal as a timebase synchronization output signal. | 08-01-2013 |
20130187742 | INDUCTIVE TOUCH SENSOR USING A FLEXIBLE COIL - An inductive touch sensor comprises an inductors disposed in or on a deformable substrate. When a force is applied to the deformable substrate the physical shape of the inductor will change and thereby change its inductance value. The change in the inductance value can be detected and used to indicate actuation of an associated touch key of the inductive touch sensor. A plurality of inductive touch sensors may be used to form a touch panel. | 07-25-2013 |
20130182353 | VOLTAGE REGULATOR OVER-VOLTAGE DETECTION SYSTEM, METHOD AND APPARATUS - Monitoring of a core logic internal voltage regulator output is performed to detect, alarm and put an integrated circuit device into a safe mode when the voltage on the core logic exceeds a safe operating voltage value. This allows putting the integrated circuit devise into a predictable, detectable and safe mode, and to alarm the over-voltage condition to a system monitor to alert on a fault and subsequent fault disposition. | 07-18-2013 |
20130181295 | ANALOG SIGNAL COMPATIBLE CMOS SWITCH AS AN INTEGRATED PERIPHERAL TO A STANDARD MICROCONTROLLER - At least one analog signal compatible complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) switch circuit is incorporated with digital logic circuits in an integrated circuit. The integrated circuit may further comprise a digital processor and memory, e.g., microcontroller, microprocessor, digital signal processor (DSP), programmable logic array (PLA), application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc., for controlling operation of the at least one analog signal compatible CMOS switch for switching analog signals, e.g., audio, video, serial communications, etc. The at least one analog signal compatible CMOS switch may have first and second states, e.g., single throw “on” or “off”, or double throw common to a or b, controlled by a single digital control signal of either a logic “0” or a logic “1”. | 07-18-2013 |
20130176496 | MONITOR CHAINING AND DOCKING MECHANISM - A circuit that supports multiple monitors, docking functions, and protected content via one cable. The circuit includes a receiver that receives multiple video streams, each including respective video data, a mux/demux, coupled to the receiver, that determines which video stream to display on a monitor, a display interface coupled to the first mux/demux, wherein the display interface is configured to generate output signals based on the video data of the determined video stream to be displayed on the first monitor, a transmitter coupled to the mux/demux, and a transmit physical interface (TPI) coupled to the transmitter. The mux/demux sends at least a remainder of the video streams to the transmitter, which sends them to the TPI, which transmits them as output, useable as input to further instances of the circuit. | 07-11-2013 |
20130162269 | Current Sensing with Internal ADC Capacitor - External conditions, e.g., smoke, temperature, humidity, humidity, pressure, flow rate, etc., affects a sensor's characteristics, wherein the sensor provides a current output representative of its characteristics as affected by the external conditions. The current output of the sensor is coupled to a sample and hold capacitor for a precision time period thereby charging the sample and hold capacitor to a voltage proportional to current provided by the sensor over the precision time period. The voltage on the sample and hold capacitor is converted to a digital representation and a determination is made whether the external condition represents an alarm situation, e.g., smoke detected from a fire. | 06-27-2013 |
20130157564 | Capacitive/Inductive Proximity Detection for Wi-Fi Protection - A combination of capacitive, mutual capacitive, and inductive proximity and touch sensing is used to detect the presence and nature of nearby objects to a wireless device. When the proximity of metal or a user is sensed the output power of a Wi-Fi module in the device is reduced so as to prevent harm to the user and/or the Wi-Fi transmitter amplifier circuits. Inductive sensors located at the four corners of the wireless device are used to detect metal, and capacitive sensors are used to detect a capacitance change or shift due to the presence of a user's hand, body or metal. In addition, the capacitive sensors may be located at the four corners of the device and can measure changes in the mutual capacitance coupling between these capacitive sensors. | 06-20-2013 |
20130155010 | Capacitive Proximity Based Gesture Input System - A plurality of capacitive proximity sensors on a substantially horizontal plane and in combination with a microcontroller are used to detect user gestures for Page Up/Down, Zoom In/Out, Move Up/Down/Right/Left, Rotation, etc., commands to a video display. The microcontroller is adapted to interpret the capacitive changes of the plurality of capacitive proximity sensors caused by the user gestures, and generate control signals based upon these gestures to control the visual content of the video display. | 06-20-2013 |
20130154670 | Method and Apparatus for Detecting Smoke in an ION Chamber - A smoke detection sensor ion chamber has a capacitance and a change in the permittivity of that capacitance dielectric (ionized air in the chamber) may be used to detect the presence of smoke therein. Smoke from typical fires is mainly composed of unburned carbon that has diffused in the surrounding air and rises with the heat of the fire. The permittivity of the carbon particles is about 10 to 15 times the permittivity of clean air. The addition of the carbon particles into the air in the ion chamber changes in the permittivity thereof that is large enough to measure by measuring a change in capacitance of the ion chamber. | 06-20-2013 |
20130154659 | Method and Apparatus for Detecting Smoke in an ION Chamber - A smoke detection sensor ion chamber has a leakage current that is dependent upon the permittivity of the ionized gas (air) in the chamber. Smoke from typical fires is mainly composed of unburned carbon that has diffused in the surrounding air and rises with the heat of the fire. The permittivity of the carbon particles is about 10 to 15 times the permittivity of clean air. The addition of the carbon particles into the air in the ion chamber changes the permittivity thereof that is large enough to detect by measuring a change in the leakage current of the ion chamber. | 06-20-2013 |
20130154657 | Method and Apparatus for Detecting Smoke in an ION Chamber - A smoke detection sensor ion chamber has a capacitance and a change in the permittivity of that capacitance dielectric (ionized air in the chamber) may be used to detect the presence of smoke therein. Smoke from typical fires is mainly composed of unburned carbon that has diffused in the surrounding air and rises with the heat of the fire. The permittivity of the carbon particles is about 10 to 15 times the permittivity of clean air. The addition of the carbon particles into the air in the ion chamber changes in the permittivity thereof that is large enough to measure by measuring a change in capacitance of the ion chamber. | 06-20-2013 |
20130154017 | Self-Aligned Gate Structure for Field Effect Transistor - A field effect transistor has a substrate with an epitaxial layer, base regions extending from a top of the epitaxial layer into the epitaxial layer, an insulation region having side walls and extending between two base regions on top of the substrate; and a polysilicon gate structure covering the insulation region including the side walls, wherein effective gates are formed by a portion of the polysilicon covering side walls above the base region. | 06-20-2013 |
20130147446 | INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE WITH TWO VOLTAGE REGULATORS - An integrated circuit device has a digital device operating at an internal core voltage; a linear voltage regulator; and an internal switched mode voltage regulator controlled by the digital device and receiving an external supply voltage being higher than the internal core voltage through at least first and second external pins and generating the internal core voltage, wherein the internal switched mode voltage regulator is coupled with at least one external component through at least one further external pin of the plurality of external pins. | 06-13-2013 |
20130145066 | ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER WITH EARLY INTERRUPT CAPABILITY - An early interrupt feature enables generation of interrupts prior to completion of an analog-to-digital conversion to be used in a processor PID calculation. Even though an analog-to-digital conversion is still in process, the PID application software can use the early interrupt time to begin execution of an interrupt service routine (ISR). The early interrupt can improve the throughput and response time of the PID control loop by overlapping the completion of the ADC conversion with the processor overhead associated with the interrupt request. A plurality of pipelined registers, each having substantially the same delay time as the pipelined stages of the ADC, are selectable to provided a delay time that may be used to generate an early interrupt, wherein the latency time between an ADC conversion and processing of an interrupt relating to that ADC conversion may thereby be shortened. | 06-06-2013 |
20130141058 | INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE WITH INTEGRATED VOLTAGE CONTROLLER - An integrated circuit device has a housing having a plurality of external pins; a central processing unit (CPU) operating at an internal core voltage and being coupled with the plurality of pins; and an internal switched mode voltage regulator receiving an external supply voltage being higher than the internal core voltage through at least first and second external pins of the plurality of external pins and generating the internal core voltage, wherein the internal switched mode voltage regulator is coupled with at least one external component through at least one further external pin of the plurality of external pins. | 06-06-2013 |
20130126325 | PHYSICAL FORCE CAPACITIVE TOUCH SENSORS - A physical force capacitive touch sensor comprises a capacitive sensor element on a substrate, a physically deformable electrically insulating spacer over the capacitive sensor element and a conductive deformable plane over the physically deformable electrically insulating spacer. A protective deformable fascia may be placed over the conductive deformable plane to provide an environmental seal for physical and weather protection, but is not essential to operation of the capacitive touch sensor. Back lighting is accomplished through a light transmissive layer(s) in the capacitive touch sensor. When the conductive deformable plane is displaced toward the capacitive touch sensor element, the capacitance value of the capacitive touch sensor element changes and that change may be detected and used as an actuation signal. | 05-23-2013 |
20130121372 | HIGH RESOLUTION TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT - Temperature is determined by measuring the time it takes to charge a capacitor with a resistive temperature sensor. A clock, time counter, a voltage comparator and voltage reference are used in determining a course time measurement. The time measurement resolution is enhanced with the addition of a constant current source charging another timing capacitor within a single clock pulse time to provide a fine time measurement. | 05-16-2013 |
20130121098 | Serial Memory with Fast Read with Look-Ahead - A serial memory may have memory arranged in a plurality of memory blocks, a serial interface for receiving a read instruction and associated memory address; and a controller configured to only store a plurality of most significant bits from each memory block which are accessed in parallel before an entire address has been received through the serial interface. The controller is further configured to stream out one of the plurality of most significant bits upon full reception of the memory address while retrieving the remaining bits from memory using the entire address and stream out the remaining bits after the most significant bits have been streamed out. | 05-16-2013 |
20130120143 | Automatic Audible Alarm Origination Locate - A plurality of hazard alarm devices are in spatially diverse locations and coupled together with an input-output bus. An interconnect protocol enables non-originating alarm devices to synchronize their audible alert tone pulses with audible alert tone pulses from an originating alarm device in a local hazard alarm condition. Hence, all audible alert tone pulses start sounding substantially together with allowances for signal contention and arbitration between the spatially diverse alarm devices. The originating alarm device continuously sounds its pattern of audible alert tone pulse groups without interruption, while the non-originating alarm devices periodically pause sounding a group of their audible alert tone pulses. The originating alarm device may be found by listening for the alarm device that is continuously sounding audible alert tone pulse groups without pause. | 05-16-2013 |
20130120136 | TEMPORAL HORN PATTERN SYNCHRONIZATION - A plurality of hazard alarm devices are in spatially diverse locations and coupled together with an input-output bus. An interconnect protocol enables non-originating alarm devices to synchronize their audible alert tone pulses with audible alert tone pulses from an originating alarm device in a local hazard alarm condition. Hence, all audible alert tone pulses start sounding substantially together with allowances for signal contention and arbitration between the spatially diverse alarm devices. | 05-16-2013 |
20130120032 | Analog Front End Device with Two-Wire Interface - An analog front end (AFE) device has at least one programmable analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a serial interface switchable to operate in a bidirectional serial interface mode and in a unidirectional two wire serial interface mode, wherein the unidirectional two wire serial interface mode only uses a clock input and a data output signal line, wherein the ADC operates in the unidirectional two wire serial interface mode synchronous with a clock supplied to the clock input. | 05-16-2013 |
20130119875 | Method and System to Dynamically Position a Switch Mode Power Supply Output Voltage - A switch mode power supply (SMPS) converter is periodically run backwards by using a synchronous switch instead of the normally used commutating diode. By running the SMPS converter backwards the SMPS output capacitor can be discharged very quickly to provide a fast turn off of (no current through) the LED's, thereby solving the color shift problem. This enables positioning the output voltage of the SMPS up or down by actively charging or discharging the bulk output capacitor. Having the capability of actively charging or discharging the bulk output capacitor allows generation of a current source comprising substantially square, e.g., substantially full current when on and substantially no current when off, current pulses that are preferable for driving LED lighting applications. | 05-16-2013 |
20130090873 | Measuring Capacitance of a Capacitive Sensor with a Microcontroller Having an Analog Output for Driving a Guard Ring - A microcontroller measures capacitance of capacitive sensors having guard rings associated therewith. A guard ring is provided around each capacitive sensor plate and is charged to substantially the same voltage as a voltage on the associated capacitive sensor plate. The guard ring reduces parasitic capacitances of the capacitive sensor plate caused by differences in voltage potentials between the capacitive sensor plate, and adjacent circuit conductors, ground planes and power planes. An analog output is buffered and coupled to an analog input coupled to the capacitive sensor plate, and is used to drive the guard ring voltage to substantially the same voltage as the voltage on the capacitive sensor plate. | 04-11-2013 |
20130088377 | Microcontroller ADC with a Variable Sample & Hold Capacitor - An ADC module includes an analog to digital converter coupled with an analog bus, wherein the an analog to digital converter comprises a main sample and hold capacitor; and a plurality of additional sample and hold capacitances which can be programmably coupled in parallel with said main sample and hold capacitance. | 04-11-2013 |
20130088372 | Measuring Capacitance of a Capacitive Sensor with a Microcontroller Having Digital Outputs for Driving a Guard Ring - A guard ring is provided around each capacitive sensor plate and charged to substantially the same voltage as a voltage on the capacitive sensor plate. The guard ring reduces parasitic capacitances of the capacitive sensor plate caused by differences in voltage potentials between the capacitive sensor plate, and adjacent circuit conductors, ground planes and power planes. Two digital outputs and associated voltage divider resistors are used to drive the guard ring voltage to substantially the same voltage as the voltage on the capacitive sensor plate. | 04-11-2013 |
20130088246 | Microcontroller with Optimized ADC Controller - An analog-to-digital (ADC) controller is used in combination with a digital processor of a microcontroller to control the operation of capacitance measurements using the capacitive voltage division (CVD) method. The ADC controller handles the CVD measurement process instead of the digital processor having to run additional program steps for controlling charging and discharging of a capacitive touch sensor and sample and hold capacitor, then coupling these two capacitors together, and measuring the resulting voltage charge thereon in determining the capacitance thereof. The ADC controller may be programmable and its programmable parameters stored in registers. | 04-11-2013 |
20130088242 | Microcontroller with Sequencer Driven Analog-to-Digital Converter - An automated sequencer for a microcontroller is provided which makes a CVD conversion process a hardware function. The sequencer controls the charging/discharging of the sensor and ADC sample-and-hold capacitances, as well as the voltage division process. It also initiates the ADC conversion, with an optional second conversion for greater resolution, or a differential conversion | 04-11-2013 |
20130088238 | Differential Current Measurements to Determine ION Current in the Presence of Leakage Current - An ion chamber provides a current representative of its characteristics as affected by external conditions, e.g., clean air or smoke. A direct current (DC) voltage is applied to the ion chamber at a first polarity and the resulting current through the ion chamber and parasitic leakage current is measured at the first polarity, then the DC voltage is applied to the ion chamber at a second polarity opposite the first polarity, and the resulting current through the ion chamber and parasitic leakage current is measured at the second polarity. Since substantially no current flows through the ion chamber at the second polarity, the common mode parasitic leakage current contribution may be removed from the total current measurement by subtracting the current measured at the second polarity from the current measured at the first polarity, resulting in just the current through the ion chamber. | 04-11-2013 |
20130082795 | REPETITIVE SINGLE CYCLE PULSE WIDTH MODULATION GENERATION - Multiple pulse width modulation (PWM) generators each have a separate phase offset counter creating a phase shift. The phase shifting process is separated from the duty cycle generation process, thereby easing the task of preserving the duty cycle and phase relationships among the various PWM channels following an asynchronous external synchronization event. A master time base generates a PWM cycle start signal that resets the phase offset counters in each of the PWM generator circuits. The phase offset counter continues counting until it matches the respective phase offset value. Then, the associated duty cycle counter is reset and restarted. The duty cycle continues until its count matches the specified value at which time the duty cycle counter stops until reset by the terminal count from the phase offset counter. The output of the duty cycle comparators provide the output PWM signals as a repetitive series of single cycle PWM signals. | 04-04-2013 |
20130082794 | EXTENDING PULSE WIDTH MODULATION PHASE OFFSET - Extending pulse width modulation phase offset when generating phase shifted groups of pulse width modulation (PWM) signals is accomplished with a separate phase counter that is independent of the time-base counters used in traditional PWM generation circuits and that is prevented from being retriggered until an existing duty cycle has completed. This is accomplished with a phase offset counter, a phase comparator and a circuit that is triggered via a master time base for overall synchronization of the multi-phase PWM signal generation. | 04-04-2013 |
20130082747 | VARIABLE FREQUENCY RATIOMETRIC MULTIPHASE PULSE WIDTH MODULATION GENERATION - Groups of phase shifted PWM signals are generated that maintain their duty-cycle and phase relationships as a function of the period of the PWM signal frequency. The multiphase PWM signals are generated in a ratio-metric fashion so as to greatly simplify and reduce the computational workload for a processor used in a PWM system. The groups of phase shifted PWM signals may also be synchronized with and automatically scaled to match external synchronization signals. | 04-04-2013 |
20130080819 | MICROCONTROLLER WITH SCHEDULING UNIT - A microcontroller has a central processing unit (CPU), a plurality of peripherals, and a programmable scheduler unit with: a timer being clocked by an independent clock signal; a comparator coupled with a timer register of said timer and having an output generating an output signal; an event register coupled with said comparator; a delta time register; and an arithmetic logic unit controlled by the output signal of the comparator and with first and second inputs and an output, wherein the first input is coupled with the timer register or the event register and the second input is coupled with the delta time register and the output is coupled with the event register. | 03-28-2013 |
20130080677 | Virtual General Purpose Input/Output for a Microcontroller - A microcontroller includes a general purpose input/output (GPIO) port having a plurality of bits coupled to a plurality of external pins; a first set of registers for providing at least one of first control and data input/output functionality of the GPIO port; a second set of registers for providing at least one of second control and data input/output functionality of the GPIO port; and a multiplexer and associated select register for controlling the multiplexer to control said GPIO port through either said first or second register set. | 03-28-2013 |
20130076417 | MAINTAINING PULSE WIDTH MODULATION DATA-SET COHERENCY - Multi-phase, frequency coherent pulse width modulation (PWM) signals are generated that maintain PWM data-set coherency regardless of user or system events. PWM data-set coherency is accomplished by adding data buffers to hold and transfer new PWM data during a data-set update from a processor. After the data-set transfer to the data buffers is complete and when the next PWM cycle is about to start, the data-set stored in the data buffers is transferred to the active PWM registers in time for the start of the next PWM cycle. | 03-28-2013 |
20130064372 | CODE HOPPING BASED SYSTEM WITH INCREASED SECURITY - An access system includes a transmitter and a receiver for exchange of secure data wherein the system uses an encryption and a decryption algorithm to exchange a secure data packet. The secure data packet may include an unencrypted data packet and an encrypted data packet. The encrypted data packet may include first data encrypted by the encryption algorithm, and data decrypted by the decryption algorithm, wherein the data decrypted by the decryption algorithm includes a combination of a secure signature and second data encrypted by the encryption algorithm. | 03-14-2013 |
20130057330 | ENHANCED COMPLEMENTARY WAVEFORM GENERATOR - An enhanced complementary waveform generator (ECWG) generates two complementary pulse width modulation (PWM) outputs determined by rising and falling event sources. In a simple configuration of the ECWG, the rising and falling event sources are the same signal which is a PWM signal having the desired period and duty cycle. The ECWG converts this single PWM input into dual complementary PWM outputs. The frequency and duty cycle of the dual PWM outputs substantially match those of the single input PWM signal. Blanking and deadband times may be introduced between the dual complementary PWM outputs, and the dual complementary PWM outputs may also be phase delayed. | 03-07-2013 |
20130027231 | Modified Dynamic Element Matching For Reduced Latency In A Pipeline Analog To Digital Converter - A circuit in an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) includes an amplifier configured to receive an output of a backend DAC; a harmonic distortion correction circuit (HDC) coupled to the amplifier and configured to correct distortion components due to the residue amplifier present in a digital signal from the backend ADC, the HDC circuit providing an output to an adder, the adder receiving a coarse digital output from a coarse ADC; and a DAC noise cancellation circuit (DNC) configured to provide an output to the adder, wherein the DNC circuit is configured to correct distortion components due to the DAC present in the digital signal from the backend ADC; wherein the output of the adder is an ADC digital output and wherein the ADC digital output forms an input to the HDC and the DNC. | 01-31-2013 |
20130026545 | MULTIPLE WELL DRAIN ENGINEERING FOR HV MOS DEVICES - At least one N-well implant having a different doping level is formed in a silicon substrate by first etching the substrate with an alignment target for aligning future process masks thereto. This alignment target is outside of any active device area. By using at least one N-well implant having a different doping level in combination with the substrate, a graded junction in the drift area of a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) field effect transistor (FET) can be created and a pseudo Ldd structure may be realized thereby. | 01-31-2013 |
20130020646 | MULTI-CHANNEL HOMOGENOUS PATH FOR ENHANCED MUTUAL TRIGGERING OF ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE FINGERS - Mutual triggering of electrostatic discharge (ESD) fingers is improved by creating a base contact in each individual finger and connecting all of these base contacts in parallel. The local base contact in each ESD finger is located at a position where the base voltage significantly increases when the ESD current increases. Thus when an ESD finger is triggered its local base voltage will tend to significantly increase. Since all of the ESD finger bases are connected in parallel this local voltage increase will forward bias the base-emitter junctions of the other ESD fingers, thus triggering them all. By sharing the triggering current from the fastest ESD finger with the slower ones ensures that all ESD fingers are triggered during an ESD event. | 01-24-2013 |
20130015869 | TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT OF ACTIVE DEVICE UNDER TEST ON STRIP TESTERAANM Francisco; RonaldoAACI ChandlerAAST AZAACO USAAGP Francisco; Ronaldo Chandler AZ USAANM Wong; Chi LungAACI GilbertAAST AZAACO USAAGP Wong; Chi Lung Gilbert AZ USAANM Messang; TimAACI GilbertAAST AZAACO USAAGP Messang; Tim Gilbert AZ USAANM Aberra; Ezana HaileAACI ChandlerAAST AZAACO USAAGP Aberra; Ezana Haile Chandler AZ US - A plurality of devices under test (DUT) are arranged in a strip tester having a temperature controlled heater block. Each DUT has a respective set of electrical test probes and a thermally conductive test probe for electrically and thermally coupling, respectively, of the strip tester to the DUTs. Temperature measurement of each of the plurality of DUTs is performed by a temperature measuring device. The temperature measuring device can be part of the test board of the strip tester and will be in thermal communications with the DUT through the thermally conductive test probe, or temperature of the DUT can be measurement with an RTD embedded in the thermally conductive test probe, thereby providing faster thermal response time. | 01-17-2013 |
20130009797 | Distributed Bootstrap Switch - An input circuit for an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) includes at least one bootstrap circuit, including at least one first switch for connecting electrical power to a first terminal of at least one capacitor; at least one second switch for connecting a second terminal of the at least one capacitor to a signal to be sampled; at least one third switch for connecting the first terminal of the at least one capacitor to the control gate of at least one sampling network input switch; at least one fourth switch for connecting the at least one sampling network input switch to a substrate; and at least one fifth switch for connecting the second terminal of the at least one capacitor to the substrate. | 01-10-2013 |
20130002460 | Multichannel Analog To Digital Converter Apparatus And Method For Using - A system including a sample-and-hold circuit for receiving a plurality of analog input signals; an analog-to-digital converter for converting each of the analog inputs to a digital signal; and a processor configured for implementing fractional delay recovery for the analog-to-digital converter. In some embodiments, the fractional delay recovery includes converting each of the plurality of analog input signals to a digital version in the predetermined order; upsampling each digital version in the predetermined order; digitally filtering each upsampled value in the predetermined order; and downsampling each filtered value in the predetermined order. | 01-03-2013 |
20130002459 | Modified Dynamic Element Matching For Reduced Latency In A Pipeline Analog To Digital Converter - A pipeline ADC is provided in which a DEM function and summation of sequences occur within a flash ADC. According to various aspects of the present disclosure, embedding the processing functions needed for DAC and amplifier error correction with the circuitry of a coarse ADC and rearranging the digital calibration blocks HDC and DNC ensures accurate estimation of the errors. | 01-03-2013 |
20120326694 | DATA RETENTION SECONDARY VOLTAGE REGULATOR - An integrated circuit device has a primary voltage regulator and an ultra-low power secondary voltage regulator. The ultra-low power secondary voltage regulator supplies voltage to certain circuits used for providing data retention and dynamic operation, e.g., a real time clock and calendar (RTCC) when the integrated circuit device is in a low power sleep mode. The primary voltage regulator provides power to these same certain circuits when the integrated circuit is in an operational mode. | 12-27-2012 |
20120309290 | STANDALONE RADIO FREQUENCY WIRELESS DEVICE HAVING DATA ACQUISITION CAPABILITIES - An inexpensive and low-power demand RF wireless device having data acquisition capabilities may be used for simple applications such as a standalone data repeater or a standalone data acquisition node without requiring a host microcontroller unit (MCU) or programmable logic for control of the wireless device. | 12-06-2012 |
20110093639 | Secure Communications Between and Verification of Authorized CAN Devices - Encrypted encoding and decoding of identification data of CAN bus devices for communications therebetween provides deterrence of theft and unauthorized access of these secure CAN bus devices. Each one of the CAN bus devices is considered a “node” on the CAN bus for communications purposes. By using a unique encryption code stored in each of the “authorized” CAN bus devices, unauthorized CAN bus nodes will not be able to communicate with the authorized, e.g., secure, CAN bus nodes functioning in a CAN system. | 04-21-2011 |
20100148678 | LED Brightness Control by Variable Frequency Modulation - Perceived intensity (brightness) of light from a light emitting diode (LED) is controlled with a pulse train signal having fixed pulse width and voltage amplitude and then increasing or decreasing the frequency (increasing or decreasing the number of pulses over a time period) of this pulse train signal so as to vary the average current through the LED. This reduces the level of electro-magnetic interference (EMI) at any one frequency by varying the pulse train energy spectrum over a plurality of frequencies. | 06-17-2010 |
20100103013 | Method and Apparatus for Dithering in Multi-Bit Sigma-Delta Digital-to-Analog Converters - A multi-bit (M-bit, M>1) Sigma-Delta digital-to-analog converter (DAC) with a variable resolution multi-bit quantizer that has its digital value inputs that are truncated or rounded to a resolution that follows a random or pseudo-random sequence to provide automatic dynamic dithering for removing undesired idle tones in the analog output of the Sigma-Delta DAC. Random numbers N(n) between 1 and M are provided, and M−N(n) least significant bits in each M-bit digital value at the output of the quantizer are forced to zero with a digital truncator or rounder. The random numbers N(n) may be provided by a random or pseudo-random sequence generator, e.g., Galois linear feedback shift register in combination with digital comparators and an adder. | 04-29-2010 |
20100103005 | Self Auto-Calibration of Analog Circuits in a Mixed Signal Integrated Circuit Device - Auto-calibration of the analog circuits occurs when requested by a user and/or the occurrence of an event(s). The user may invoke an auto-calibration on demand through an auto-calibration (A | 04-29-2010 |
20100102851 | P-Type Source Bias Virtual Ground Restoration Apparatus - A virtual ground restoration circuit is used to substantially eliminate excessive current from occurring in an integrated circuit device having two or more logic circuit modules in different voltage domains. Excessive current is caused when a signal between the two or more logic circuit modules in different voltage domains is at logic “0” and one of the logic circuit modules is biased at a voltage level above the true ground or common power source voltage, V | 04-29-2010 |
20100102832 | Automated Capacitive Touch Scan - A scan module of an electronic device scans a capacitive keypad for detection of the actuation of any capacitive touch sensor. This scan module remains in operation even when major power consuming circuits of the electronic device are in a sleep mode, and will not wake up the major power consuming circuits until an action requiring the circuits is needed, thereby, reducing overall power consumption of the electronic device while still maintaining scanning of the capacitive keypad. Upon detection of a valid key press of a capacitive touch sensor, an interrupt to the electronic device brings it out of a sleep mode and into an operating mode for further processing and appropriate action commensurate with the actuation of the specific capacitive touch sensor. | 04-29-2010 |
20100102830 | Physical Force Capacitive Touch Sensor - A physical force capacitive touch sensor comprises a capacitive sensor element on a substrate, a physically deformable electrically insulating spacer over the capacitive sensor element, and a conductive plane over the physically deformable electrically insulating spacer that is substantially parallel to the capacitive sensor element. The conductive plane is connected to a power supply common and/or grounded to form a capacitor with the capacitive sensor element and for improved shielding of the capacitive sensor element from electrostatic disturbances and false triggering thereof. A protective cover may be placed over the conductive plane to act as an environmental seal for improved physical and weather protection, but is not essential to operation of the capacitive touch sensor. | 04-29-2010 |
20100079078 | Using Pulse Density Modulation for Controlling Dimmable Electronic Lighting Ballasts - Pulse Density Modulation (PDM) controls light brightness from a fluorescent lamp by applying voltages to the lamp filaments at two or more sequential signal frequencies. A low frequency, an intermediate frequency and a high frequency may be used to control the brightness of the lamp. The lamp gas ionizes to produce light only when the low or intermediate frequency voltage is applied thereto. The lamp gas is not ionized at the high frequency voltage, but the high frequency voltage keeps the lamp filaments warm during low brightness conditions. The low frequency, intermediate frequency, no and/or high frequency voltages have time periods that occur within a modulation frame time period that repeats continuously. The ratio of the low frequency and intermediate frequency time periods, and the no and/or high frequency voltage time periods determine the light output of the fluorescent lamp, and also maintain a proper temperature of the filaments. | 04-01-2010 |
20100017490 | Serial Communications Device with Dynamic Allocation of Acceptance Masks Using Serial Implementation - A CAN module or a microcontroller comprises a CAN module which receives a serial bit stream. The CAN module comprises a filter register with a bit select input and a single bit output, a bit select unit for selecting a bit of the filter register in accordance with the serial bit stream, a comparator coupled with the single bit output and with the serial bit stream for generating a comparison signal, and a register receiving the comparison signal for accumulating a plurality of comparison results and for generating an acceptance signal. | 01-21-2010 |
20090316847 | Automatic Synchronization of an Internal Oscillator to an External Frequency Reference - An internal integrated circuit clock oscillator is automatically synchronized to an external frequency reference by counting the number of periods of the internal clock oscillator (hereinafter “count”) that occur within a period of a lower frequency external frequency reference then comparing the count to the reference count. When the reference count is greater than the count, the frequency of the internal clock oscillator is increased. When the reference count is less than the count, the frequency of the internal clock oscillator is decreased. When the reference count and the count are substantially the same, the frequency of the internal clock oscillator is not changed. | 12-24-2009 |
20090256674 | Programmable Selective Wake-Up for Radio Frequency Transponder - A remote keyless entry (RKE) transponder has a programmable selective wake-up filter for determining whether the RKE transponder should wake-up to process a received signal. The wake-up filter correlates the timing of an input signal's carrier amplitude on and off time periods to a predefined programmable time period profile for a desired signal which has a certain carrier on time (time period on) and a certain carrier off time (time period off) arranged into a coded “header.” When a received signal matches the predefined time period profile, then the RKE transponder will wake-up to process the incoming signal data. The predefined time period profile may be programmable and may be stored in a header configuration register. Each RKE transponder has unique predefined time period on and time period off profiles. | 10-15-2009 |
20080272830 | Variable Power and Response Time Brown-Out-Reset Circuit - A brown-out-reset circuit having programmable power and response time characteristics. These characteristics may be programmed over an n-bit wide bus for 2 | 11-06-2008 |