| STMICROELECTRONICS S.R.L. Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
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| 20160141216 | PROBE PAD WITH INDENTATION - An integrated electronic circuit has probe indentations filled by a hard covering substance. The integrated circuit device results from a process of manufacturing including forming a substrate comprising a plurality of functional components of the electronic circuit, creating a plurality of conductive layers on such substrate to form an electric contact region with high hardness equal to or greater than a first hardness value of about 300 HV, contacting the electric contact region with a probe thereby causing an indentation. The process further comprises, after the test run, creating a covering conductive layer on at least one part of the electric contact region contacted by the probe to fill the indentation. | 05-19-2016 |
| 20160126873 | SENSORLESS ROTOR ANGLE DETECTION CIRCUIT AND METHOD FOR A PERMANENT MAGNET SYNCHRONOUS MACHINE - An estimate of the initial position of a rotor is made by monitoring sensed motor current signals which are amplitude and phase modulated with the rotor flux position in response to a high frequency voltage signal injection. The motor current signals are envelope detected to determine zero crossing points. Samples are taken of the motor current signals at positive and negative offsets from the zero crossing point, with the samples processed to identify a direction of the rotor flux axis. Further samples of at least one motor current signal are taken with respect to a certain phase reference, and the samples compared to resolve a polarity of the rotor flux axis which is indicative of the angular position of the rotor. | 05-05-2016 |
| 20160111507 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE COMPRISING CONDUCTIVE REGIONS AND DUMMY REGIONS - A device includes an epitaxial region extending into a front surface of a chip. A portion of the chip adjacent the epitaxial region defines a collector. A gate is provided in a trench extending into the epitaxial region from the front surface. An emitter includes a body extending into the epitaxial region at a first side of the trench and a source extending into the body region from the front surface at the trench. A dummy emitter extends into the epitaxial region from the front surface at a second side of the trench opposite said first side. The dummy emitter lacks the source. The gate extends along a first wall of the trench facing the emitter region. A dummy gate is formed in the trench in a manner electrically isolated from the gate and extending along a second wall of the trench opposite said first wall. | 04-21-2016 |
| 20160105017 | OVER-VOLTAGE PROTECTION CIRCUIT FOR A DRIVE TRANSISTOR - A drive transistor is connected to a resonant load in a low-side drive configuration. The voltage across the conduction terminals of the drive transistor is sensed and compared to an over-voltage threshold. An over-voltage signal is asserted in response to the comparison. The drive transistor is controlled by a PWM control signal in normal mode. In response to the assertion of the over-voltage signal, the drive transistor is forced to turn on (irrespective of the PWM control signal) to relieve the over-voltage condition. Operation of the circuit may be disabled or forced into soft start mode in response to the assertion of the over-voltage signal. Additionally, the pulse width of the PWM control signal may be reduced in response to the assertion of the over-voltage signal. | 04-14-2016 |
| 20160099582 | SINGLE INDUCTOR DC-DC CONVERTER WITH REGULATED OUTPUT AND ENERGY HARVESTING SYSTEM - An energy harvesting circuit receives an input voltage from a transducer and uses a single inductor operating in a DC-DC converter charging mode to generate charging current at a first output coupled to an energy storage device where a supply voltage is stored. The energy harvesting circuit further receives the supply voltage from the energy storage device and uses the same single inductor operating in a DC-DC converter regulating mode to generate load current at a second output where a regulated load voltage is provided. The energy harvesting circuit switches between the charging mode and the regulating mode in accordance with a discontinuous mode (DCM) control process. | 04-07-2016 |
| 20160094831 | MIRROR MICROMECHANICAL STRUCTURE AND RELATED MANUFACTURING PROCESS - A mirror micromechanical structure has a mobile mass carrying a mirror element. The mass is drivable in rotation for reflecting an incident light beam with a desired angular range. The mobile mass is suspended above a cavity obtained in a supporting body. The cavity is shaped so that the supporting body does not hinder the reflected light beam within the desired angular range. In particular, the cavity extends as far as a first side edge wall of the supporting body of the mirror micromechanical structure. The cavity is open towards, and in communication with, the outside of the mirror micromechanical structure at the first side edge wall. | 03-31-2016 |
| 20160094378 | SYSTEM FOR GENERATING A CALIBRATION SIGNAL, RELATED TRANSCEIVER AND METHOD - A calibration signal is generated from a modulating signal having a first frequency and a carrier signal having a second frequency. A single-sideband mixer modulates the modulating signal on the carrier signal. At least two frequency dividers by two connected in cascade receive the modulating signal modulated on the carrier signal and generate an output of the calibration signal. | 03-31-2016 |
| 20160081179 | MANUFACTURING OF A HEAT SINK BY WAVE SOLDERING - An electronic device is attached to a first surface of a board which includes vias. A heat sink precursor for the electronic device is attached to the second surface of the electronic board. The heat sink precursor includes a cavity facing the vias. A wave of solder paste is applied to the second surface. The solder paste penetrates into the cavity of the heat sink precursor and flows by capillary action through the vias to weld a thermal radiator and/or electronic contact of the electronic device to the vias. The solder paste further remains in the cavity to form a corresponding heat sink. | 03-17-2016 |
| 20160079857 | BOOST CONVERTER AND RELATED INTEGRATED CIRCUIT - A boost converter receives an input voltage and provides an output voltage and includes a power switch and a voltage control circuit configured to drive the power switch as a function of the output voltage. A voltage sensing circuit in the form of a voltage divider is coupled to sense the output voltage and provide a feedback voltage. The voltage control circuit drives the power switch. An electronic control switch is configured to selectively connect the voltage divider to sense the output voltage as a function of an enable signal generated by a timer circuit. The enable signal is pulsed such that the voltage divider is periodically connected to sense the output voltage during a first time and is disconnected from sensing during a second time. | 03-17-2016 |
| 20160079181 | TRACEABLE INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND PRODUCTION METHOD THEREOF - An embodiment of a method for producing traceable integrated circuits includes forming on a wafer of semiconductor material functional regions for implementing specific functionalities of corresponding integrated circuits, forming at least one seal ring around each functional region of the corresponding integrated circuit, and forming on each integrated circuit at least one marker indicative of information of the integrated circuit. Forming on each integrated circuit at least one marker may include forming the at least one marker on at least a portion of the respective seal ring that is visible. | 03-17-2016 |
| 20160079144 | GRAPHENE BASED FILLER MATERIAL OF SUPERIOR THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY FOR CHIP ATTACHMENT IN MICROSTRUCTURE DEVICES - An integrated circuit chip attachment in a microstructure device is accomplished through the use of an adhesive-based material in which graphene flakes are incorporated. This results in superior thermal conductivity. The spatial orientation of the graphene flakes is controlled, for example by adhering polar molecules to the graphene flakes and exposing the flakes to an external force field, so that the graphene flakes have desired orientations under the integrated circuit chip, alongside of the integrated circuit chip and above the integrated circuit chip. | 03-17-2016 |
| 20160079092 | POWER DEVICE HAVING REDUCED THICKNESS - An electronic device includes at least one chip and an insulating body embedding the chip. The electronic device further includes a heat-sink in contact with the chip. The heat-sink includes a plate having a first thickness. A recess is provided in the plate that defines a central portion of the plate having a second thickness less than the first thickness. The chip is mounted to the central region of the heat-sink within the recess. The insulating body includes a surface, such as a mounting surface, including an opening exposing at least a portion of the heat-sink. The device may further include a reophore extending through a side surface of the insulating body, that reophore being in contact with the heat sink. | 03-17-2016 |
| 20160077130 | PROBES FOR TESTING INTEGRATED ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS AND CORRESPONDING PRODUCTION METHOD - Cantilever probes are produced for use in a test apparatus of integrated electronic circuits. The probes are configured to contact corresponding terminals of the electronic circuits to be tested during a test operation. The probe bodies are formed of electrically conductive materials. On a lower portion of each probe body that, in use, is directed to the respective terminal to be contacted, an electrically conductive contact region is formed having a first hardness value equal to or greater than 300 HV; each contact region and the respective probe body form the corresponding probe. | 03-17-2016 |
| 20160076962 | INTEGRATED TRANSDUCER PROVIDED WITH A TEMPERATURE SENSOR AND METHOD FOR SENSING A TEMPERATURE OF THE TRANSDUCER - A pressure sensor includes a body made of semiconductor material having a first type of conductivity and a pressure-sensitive structure having the first type of conductivity defining a suspended membrane. One or more piezoresistive elements having a second type of conductivity (P) are formed in the suspended membrane. The piezoresistive elements form, with the pressure-sensitive structure, respective junction diodes. A temperature sensing method includes: generating a first current between conduction terminals common to the junction diodes; detecting a first voltage value between the common conduction terminals when the first current is supplied; and correlating the detected first voltage value to a value of temperature of the diodes. The temperature value thus calculated can be used for correcting the voltage signal generated at output by the pressure sensor when the latter is operated for sensing an applied outside pressure which deforms the suspended membrane. | 03-17-2016 |
| 20160072435 | POWER OSCILLATOR APPARATUS WITH TRANSFORMER-BASED POWER COMBINING - An oscillator circuit includes first and second oscillators arranged in a series configuration between a supply voltage node and a reference voltage node. The first and second oscillators are configured to receive a synchronizing signal for controlling synchronization in frequency and phase. An electromagnetic network provided to couple the first and the second oscillators includes a transformer with a primary circuit and a secondary circuit. The primary circuit includes a first portion coupled to the first oscillator and second portion coupled to the second oscillator. The first and second portions are connected by a circuit element for reuse of current between the first and second oscillators. The oscillator circuit is fabricated as an integrated circuit device wherein the electromagnetic network is formed in metallization layers of the device. The secondary circuit generates an output power combining power provided from the first and second portions of the primary circuit. | 03-10-2016 |
| 20160072057 | INTEGRATED MAGNETORESISTIVE SENSOR, IN PARTICULAR THREE-AXIS MAGNETORESISTIVE SENSOR AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF - An integrated magnetoresistive device includes a substrate of semiconductor material that is covered, on a first surface, by an insulating layer. A magnetoresistor of ferromagnetic material extends within the insulating layer and defines a sensitivity plane of the sensor. A concentrator of ferromagnetic material includes at least one arm that extends in a transversal direction to the sensitivity plane and is vertically offset from the magnetoresistor. The concentrator concentrates deflects magnetic flux lines perpendicular to the sensitivity plane so as to generate magnetic-field components directed in a parallel direction to the sensitivity plane. | 03-10-2016 |
| 20160064046 | IDENTIFICATION OF A CONDITION OF A SECTOR OF MEMORY CELLS IN A NON-VOLATILE MEMORY - A non-volatile memory of a complementary type includes sectors of memory cells, with each cell formed by a direct memory cell and a complementary memory cell. Each sector of the non-volatile memory is in a non-written condition when the corresponding memory cells are in equal states and is in a written condition wherein each location thereof stores a first logic value or a second logic value when the memory cells of the location are in a first combination of different states or in a second combination of different states, respectively. A sector is selected and a determination is made as to a number of memory cells in the programmed state and a number of memory cells in the erased state. From this information, the condition of the selected sector is identified from a comparison between the number of memory cells in the programmed state and the number of memory cells in the erased state. | 03-03-2016 |
| 20160049459 | INTEGRATED CIRCUIT COMPRISING AT LEAST AN INTEGRATED ANTENNA - An integrated circuit on a substrate including at least one peripheral portion that surrounds an active area and is realized close to at least one scribe line providing separation with other integrated circuits realized on a same wafer. The integrated circuit includes at least one conductive structure that extends in its peripheral portion on different planes starting from the substrate and realizes an integrated antenna for the circuit. | 02-18-2016 |
| 20160043647 | POWER-SUPPLY CIRCUIT, RELATED TRANSMISSION CIRCUIT, INTEGRATED CIRCUIT, AND METHOD OF TRANSMITTING A SIGNAL - A power-supply circuit includes a transformer with primary and secondary windings, and an energy accumulator on the secondary winding. A circuit monitors the secondary winding and generates a feedback signal that is transferred by a transmission circuit through the secondary winding by selectively transferring energy from the energy accumulator. The transmission circuit includes: a) an electronic switch having a control terminal; and b) a driver circuit for driving the electronic switch. The driver circuit includes a charge-accumulation capacitor connected to the control terminal, and a charge circuit configured to draw energy from the secondary winding and charge the charge-accumulation capacitor. | 02-11-2016 |
| 20160018461 | PROCESS FOR CONTROLLING THE CORRECT POSITIONING OF TEST PROBES ON TERMINATIONS OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES INTEGRATED ON A SEMICONDUCTOR AND CORRESPONDING ELECTRONIC DEVICE - An electrical check executed on wafer tests for the correct positioning or alignment of the probes of a probe card on the pads or bumps of the electronic devices integrated on the wafer. A signal is applied to cause a current to circulate in at least part of a seal ring of at least one of the electronic devices. In a case where the current flows between and through multiple electronic devices, the seal rings of those electronic devices are suitably interconnected to each other by electronic structures that extend through the scribe line between electronic devices. | 01-21-2016 |
| 20160005678 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE COMPRISING AN IMPROVED LEAD FRAME - An electronic device includes a chip and a support element which supports the chip. Leads are provided to be electrically coupled to at least one terminal of the chip. A coupling element is mounted to a free region of the support element that is not occupied by the chip. The coupling element includes a conductive portion electrically connected to at least one lead and to the at least one terminal of the chip to obtain an electrical coupling. | 01-07-2016 |
| 20160003757 | GAS MEASUREMENT DEVICE AND MEASUREMENT METHOD THEREOF - A gas measurement device measures gas using a gas sensor including a sense resistance exposed to the gas and a reference resistance not exposed to the gas. The gas measurement device applies a first current value and a second current value to the sensor. A detector functions to detect a first resistance variation and a second resistance variation of the sense resistance exposed to the gas with respect to the reference resistance as a function of the first current value and the second current value, respectively. The resistance variation dependent on relative humidity is then determined as a function of the first and second resistance variations and a first constant. The resistance variation dependent on gas content is then determined as a function of the first and second resistance variations and a second (different) constant. | 01-07-2016 |
| 20150381177 | COMMUNICATION CELL FOR AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT OPERATING IN CONTACT AND CONTACTLESS MODE, ELECTRONIC CHIP COMPRISING THE COMMUNICATION CELL, ELECTRONIC SYSTEM INCLUDING THE CHIP, AND TEST APPARATUS - A communication cell for an integrated circuit includes a physical interface configured to supply an input signal (for example, a capacitive signal or an ohmic signal). A receiver circuit operates to receive the capacitive signal and generate a first intermediate signal. A buffer circuit operates to receive the ohmic signal and generate a second intermediate signal. An output stage including a selector device (for example, a multiplexer) configured to receive the first and second intermediate signals and selectively pass only one of those signals to the integrated circuit based on operating condition. The input signal may further be an inductive signal, with the output stage further functioning to selectively pass that signal based on operating condition. | 12-31-2015 |
| 20150381125 | POWER AMPLIFIER - A power amplifier includes a clamping circuit configured to provide a clamped voltage from a power supply; an amplifier pair having first inputs coupled to the clamping circuit, second inputs and an output for providing an amplified signal; and a biasing circuit coupled between the clamping circuit and the second inputs. The biasing circuit is configured to adjust input bias voltages of the amplifier pair such that the bias voltage of the output of the amplifier pair varies proportionally to a change of the power supply. | 12-31-2015 |
| 20150380966 | BATTERY CHARGER - A battery charger includes an input supply terminal configured to receive a supply signal and a battery terminal configured to be connected to a battery. A supply switching circuit is arranged between the battery terminal and the input supply terminal. A control device generates a control signal to control operation of the supply switching circuit. A fuel gauge device provide a digital estimation of a voltage signal across the battery. A correction device modifies the control signal in response to the digital estimation of the voltage signal across the battery if that digital estimation is outside of a value range between two thresholds. | 12-31-2015 |
| 20150380801 | PLANAR BALUN TRANSFORMER DEVICE - An electric transformer device (balun) is formed on a support plate having a first base face and an opposite second base face. The balun includes a first port ( | 12-31-2015 |
| 20150377813 | SEMICONDUCTOR GAS SENSOR DEVICE AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF - A semiconductor gas sensor device includes a first cavity that is enclosed by opposing first and second semiconductor substrate slices. At least one conducting filament is provided to extend over the first cavity, and a passageway is provided to permit gas to enter the first cavity. The sensor device may further including a second cavity that is hermetically enclosed by the opposing first and second semiconductor substrate slices. At least one another conducting filament is provided to extend over the second cavity. | 12-31-2015 |
| 20150364934 | METHOD OF OPERATING A BATTERY-CHARGER DEVICE, AND CORRESPONDING DEVICE - A battery charger operates in a current regulation mode and a voltage regulation mode. A value of the voltage on the battery being charged is sensed and compared against a target voltage value. The current regulation mode is active during charging while the sensed voltage is less than the target voltage value. When the sensed voltage reaches the target voltage value, the voltage regulation mode is enabled and the current regulation mode is inhibited. | 12-17-2015 |
| 20150364455 | STACK OF INTEGRATED-CIRCUIT CHIPS AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE - A stack of chips is formed by a first integrated-circuit chip and a second integrated-circuit chip. The chips have opposing faces which are separated from each other by an interposed spacer. The spacer is fastened by adhesion to only one of the opposing faces. The opposing faces are fastened to each other by a local adhesive which is separate from spacer. | 12-17-2015 |
| 20150364409 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH DIE BEING SUNK IN SUBSTRATE - An electronic device includes a circuit integrated on a die having front and back surfaces with die terminals on the front surface. The die is embedded in a package including substrate of thermally conductive material with front and back surfaces and a through-hole. The die is sunk in the through-hole. A first insulating material layer covers the die front surface and the package front surface with first windows for accessing die terminals. Package terminals and package track are arranged on the first insulating layer. A second insulating material layer covers the first insulating layer and the package tracks with second windows for accessing the package terminals. | 12-17-2015 |
| 20150364249 | INTEGRATED TRANSFORMER - An integrated transformer includes a primary winding and a secondary winding each having a spiral planar arrangement coils. A dielectric portion of dielectric material is interposed between the primary winding and the secondary winding. A field plate winding is electrically coupled with the primary winding. The field plate winding includes at least one field plate coil having a first lateral extension greater than a second lateral extension of a primary outer coil of the primary winding. The field plate coil is superimposed in plan view to the primary outer coil of the primary winding. | 12-17-2015 |
| 20150362522 | MEMS RESONANT ACCELEROMETER HAVING IMPROVED ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS - A MEMS resonant accelerometer is disclosed, having: a proof mass coupled to a first anchoring region via a first elastic element so as to be free to move along a sensing axis in response to an external acceleration; and a first resonant element mechanically coupled to the proof mass through the first elastic element so as to be subject to a first axial stress when the proof mass moves along the sensing axis and thus to a first variation of a resonant frequency. The MEMS resonant accelerometer is further provided with a second resonant element mechanically coupled to the proof mass through a second elastic element so as to be subject to a second axial stress when the proof mass moves along the sensing axis, substantially opposite to the first axial stress, and thus to a second variation of a resonant frequency, opposite to the first variation. | 12-17-2015 |
| 20150355267 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ELECTRICAL TESTING OF THROUGH SILICON VIAS (TSVs) - A testing system for carrying out electrical testing of at least one first through via forms an insulated via structure extending only part way through a substrate of a first body of semiconductor material. The testing system has a first electrical test circuit integrated in the first body and electrically coupled to the insulated via structure. The first electrical test circuit enables detection of at least one electrical parameter of the insulated via structure. | 12-10-2015 |
| 20150336207 | ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE WITH ANTENNA AND ELECTROMAGNETIC SHIELD - An electronic communications device includes a body of semiconductor material with an integrated electronic circuit, an inductive element, and a capacitive element. The capacitive element is formed by a first electrode and a second electrode positioned between the inductive element and the integrated electronic circuit. Tuning of the device circuitry is accomplished by energizing the inductive/capacitive elements, determining resonance frequency, and using a laser trimming operation to alter the structure of one or more of the first electrode, second electrode or inductive element and change the resonance frequency. | 11-26-2015 |
| 20150333713 | CONTROL CIRCUIT FOR LOW NOISE AMPLIFIER AND RELATED DIFFERENTIAL AND SINGLE-ENDED AMPLIFICATION DEVICES - A circuit includes a first pair of transistors connected in parallel between a first node and a second node with a diode-connected transistor coupled to the second node. A second pair of transistors has current terminals connected at a third node. A first and second current sink transistors are connected in a current mirror configuration with the diode-connected transistor and further coupled to the third node. A first differential amplifier has an output coupled to control terminals of the first and third transistors and an input coupled to a further current node of the third transistor. A second differential amplifier has an output coupled to control terminals of the second and fourth transistors and an input coupled to a further current node of the fourth transistor. | 11-19-2015 |
| 20150323944 | CURRENT MODULATION CIRCUIT - A modulated digital input signal is passed through a conditioning circuit to generate a first input signal. An error amplifier circuit receives the first input signal and a second input signal, and controls the operation of a MOS transistor to generate an output signal that is current modulated. The output signal is sensed to generate a feedback signal. A switching circuit selectively applies the feedback signal as the second input signal in response to a transition of the modulated digital input signal from a first logic state to a second logic state. The switching circuit alternatively selectively applies a fixed reference signal as the second input signal to the error amplifier in response to a transition of the modulated digital input signal from the second logic state to the first logic state. | 11-12-2015 |
| 20150303816 | POWER SWITCHING CONVERTER - A circuit includes a transformer with a primary, secondary, and auxiliary. A first control circuit actuates a first switch circuit based on a wake-up signal to cause the primary to transmit power to the secondary. A second control circuit actuates a second switch circuit based on an output voltage at the secondary being less than a threshold to generate the wake-up signal to the secondary for transmission to the auxiliary. The second switch circuit has a transistor with a source coupled to a reference node, a gate coupled to the second control circuit. A first diode has an anode coupled to the source and a cathode coupled to the drain, and blocks flow of current from the drain to the source. A second diode has an anode coupled to the substrate and a cathode coupled to the drain, and blocks flow of current from the drain to the substrate. | 10-22-2015 |
| 20150301106 | SENSING STRUCTURE OF ALIGNMENT OF A PROBE FOR TESTING INTEGRATED CIRCUITS - A sensing structure is presented for use in testing integrated circuits on a substrate. The sensing structure includes a probe region corresponding to a conductive region for connecting to the integrated circuit. A first sensing region at least partially surrounds the probe region. A plurality of sensing elements connects in series such that a first of the plurality of sensing elements has two terminals respectively connected to the first sensing region and the probe region. And a second of the plurality of sensing elements has two terminals respectively connected to the probe region and a first reference potential. | 10-22-2015 |
| 20150294942 | INDEXING OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES DISTRIBUTED ON DIFFERENT CHIPS - A method for indexing electronic devices includes: forming first chips in a first wafer, forming second chips in a second wafer, forming the electronic devices by coupling each first chip with a corresponding second chip, and forming an index on each electronic device. The index is indicative of a position of the corresponding first chip in the first wafer. The step of forming an index includes forming a first portion of the index on the first chip, and forming a second portion of the index on the second chip. | 10-15-2015 |
| 20150284243 | TEMPERATURE-COMPENSATED MICRO-ELECTROMECHANICAL DEVICE, AND METHOD OF TEMPERATURE COMPENSATION IN A MICRO-ELECTROMECHANICAL DEVICE - A micro-electromechanical device includes a semiconductor substrate, in which a first microstructure and a second microstructure of reference are integrated. The first microstructure and the second microstructure are arranged in the substrate so as to undergo equal strains as a result of thermal expansions of the substrate. Furthermore, the first microstructure is provided with movable parts and fixed parts with respect to the substrate, while the second microstructure has a shape that is substantially symmetrical to the first microstructure but is fixed with respect to the substrate. By subtracting the changes in electrical characteristics of the second microstructure from those of the first, variations in electrical characteristics of the first microstructure caused by changes in thermal expansion or contraction can be compensated for. | 10-08-2015 |
| 20150280586 | POWER SWITCHING CONVERTER - A power switching converter includes a switch coupled to an input terminal through a primary winding of a transformer and a control circuit configured to drive the switch to provide a regulated output signal at a secondary winding of the transformer. A wake up circuit is provided to force the switching-on of the switch when the power converter enters in a burst mode. The wake up circuit includes a transmitting section coupled to the secondary winding and a receiving section coupled to an auxiliary winding of the transformer and the control circuit. The transmitting section is configured to provide a wake up signal communicated in a wireless manner to the receiving section when the output signal falls below a threshold value. | 10-01-2015 |
| 20150276894 | HALL-EFFECT-BASED MAGNETIC FIELD SENSOR HAVING AN IMPROVED OUTPUT BANDWIDTH - A magnetic field sensor formed by a Hall cell having a first, second, third and fourth conduction nodes electrically coupled together by resistive paths. Flowing between the first and second conduction nodes is a control current. In the presence of a magnetic field, a difference of potential due to the Hall effect is generated between the third and fourth conduction nodes. An operational amplifier has an inverting input terminal coupled to the fourth conduction node, a non-inverting input terminal biased at the voltage at the third conduction node, and an output terminal coupled in feedback mode to the inverting input by a feedback resistor. The current generated in feedback through the feedback resistor generates a voltage indicating unbalancing, due to the Hall effect, between the third and fourth conductive nodes, and consequently indicates the intensity of the magnetic field that acts upon the Hall cell. | 10-01-2015 |
| 20150268133 | SAFE SCHEDULER FOR FINITE STATE DETERMINISTIC APPLICATION - A safety system monitors faults in an embedded control system. The embedded control system is modeled to produce one or more model check values by calculating how many clock cycles will pass between an initialization time point and at least one event time point for a specific event. The initialization time point is a certain point in an initialization function of a scheduler in the embedded control system. The at least one event time point is an expected number of clock cycles to pass before a specific event occurs. In operation, the embedded control system is initialized, a current clock cycle counter value is retrieved at a certain point in the initialization, and either an occurrence or an absence of an occurrence of a scheduled event is recognized. A current clock cycle value is recorded upon the recognition, and a mathematic check value is produced from the clock cycle value stored at the certain point in the initialization and the clock cycle value recorded upon the recognition. Subsequently, the model check value is compared to the mathematic check value, and action is taken based on the comparison. | 09-24-2015 |
| 20150260542 | ENERGY SCAVENGING STEP-COUNTER DEVICE AND RELATED STEP-COUNTING METHOD - A step-detection device for detecting the steps taken by a user (for counting) includes a transducer that generates an electrical transduction signal as a function of step mechanical activity. An energy scavenging system, coupled to the transducer, generates electrical energy starting from the mechanical activity in order to supply an output supply signal in response to the electrical transduction signal. A voltage-regulator generates a regulated supply signal from the output supply signal. A transmission stage, supplied by the voltage-regulating stage, initiates a wireless transmission indicative of step detection, that wireless transmission causing an increment of a step count at a remote location. The transmission stage makes the wireless transmission when the regulated supply signal exceeds a first threshold. Completion of the wireless transmission is indicative of the occurrence of a step. | 09-17-2015 |
| 20150255341 | METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING A TRANSISTOR WITH SELF-ALIGNED TERMINAL CONTACTS - A MOS transistor includes a semiconductor layer with a drain region and a body region. A first insulating layer is disposed over the semiconductor layer, a gate-precursor layer is disposed over the first insulating layer, a second insulating layer disposed over the first insulating layer and a third insulating layer disposed over the second insulating layer. A source opening extends through the third insulating layer, the second insulating layer, the gate-precursor layer, and the first insulating layer. An implant through the source opening forms a source-precursor region in the semiconductor layer. The source opening is then lined and an body contact opening is made through the liner, the source-precursor region and into the body region. An implant through the body contact opening forms the body contact region below the source-precursor. The body contact opening is then filled with a metal. | 09-10-2015 |
| 20150236683 | HIGH VOLTAGE COMPARISON CIRCUIT - A high voltage comparison circuit includes an input stage generating an intermediate signal as a result of a comparison between an input signal and a first voltage reference and an output stage configured to generate an output signal referenced to a second voltage reference (different from the first voltage reference) in response to the intermediate signal. | 08-20-2015 |
| 20150235929 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH HEAT DISSIPATER - An electronic device includes an integrated circuit chip mounted to a heat slug. The heat slug has a peripheral region having first thickness along a first direction, the peripheral region surrounding a recess region (having a second, smaller, thickness along the first direction) that defines a chip mounting surface along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The recess region defines side borders and a nook extends into the heat slug along the side borders. An insulating body embeds the integrated circuit one chip and heat slug. Material of the insulating body fills the nook. | 08-20-2015 |
| 20150234416 | ENERGY HARVESTING INTERFACE WITH IMPROVED IMPEDANCE MATCHING, METHOD FOR OPERATING THE ENERGY HARVESTING INTERFACE, AND ENERGY HARVESTING SYSTEM USING THE ENERGY HARVESTING INTERFACE - An energy harvesting interface receives an electrical signal from an inductive transducer and supplies a supply signal. The interface includes an input branch with a first switch and a second switch connected together in series between a first input terminal and an output terminal. The interface further includes a third switch and a fourth switch connected together in series between a second input terminal and the output terminal. A first electrical-signal-detecting device, coupled across the second switch, detects a first threshold value of an electric storage current in the inductor of the transducer. A second electrical-signal-detecting device, coupled across the fourth switch, detects whether the electric supply current that flows through the fourth switch reaches a second threshold value lower than the first threshold value. The second threshold is derived from the electric storage current. | 08-20-2015 |
| 20150229222 | POWER SUPPLY APPARATUS FOR AN ELECTRICAL APPLIANCE - A power supply apparatus includes a power supply circuit and a power-on circuit. The power-on circuit detects a remotely transmitted control signal and causes a transition of the power supply circuit to a turned on state. The power-on circuit includes a transducer configured to provide a power-on signal in response to the remote control signal. The transducer triggers transition to the turned on state through a switch driven by the power-on signal output from the transducer and arranged to supply a power supply circuit enable signal. A DC blocking capacitor is connected between an output of the transducer and a control terminal of the switch. | 08-13-2015 |
| 20150228589 | INDEXING OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES WITH MULTIPLE WEIGHT MARKERS - A die has a positional location in a wafer defined by first and second coordinates, the first and second coordinates identifying a respective horizontal and vertical location where the die was formed. An index formed on the die has a first comb structure of a first contiguous arrangement of first dots, and a second comb structure of a second contiguous arrangement of second dots. A first marker at a selected one of the first dots indicates a first digit of the first coordinate, and a first additional marker at a selected one of the first dots indicates a second digit of the first coordinate. A second marker at a selected one of the second dots indicates a first digit of the second coordinate, and a second additional marker at a selected one of the second dots indicates a second digit of the second coordinate. | 08-13-2015 |
| 20150228359 | FAILURE DIAGNOSIS CIRCUIT - A failure diagnosis circuit includes a multiplexer and a controller. The multiplexer receives address signals, and selectively outputs one of the address signals to an addressable module in response to a selecting signal. The controller generates a first one of address signals and the selecting signal. A built-in self-test circuit generates the second address signal. The addressable module includes addressable components responsive to the address signal. The controller processes the output of the addressable module responsive to the address signal to make a failure diagnosis. The built-in self-test circuit performs signature analysis on the read out output of the addressable module. | 08-13-2015 |
| 20150207336 | POWER RECEIVER, WIRELESS POWER SYSTEM AND RELATED METHOD OF TRANSMITTING INFORMATION WITH A POWER RECEIVER - A power receiver includes a resonant circuit generating an internal supply voltage. A voltage rectification circuit receives the internal supply voltage and generate a corresponding rectified voltage. A voltage regulator receives the rectified voltage and a modulation signal and is configured to generate a corresponding regulated voltage. A controlled voltage-to-current converter receives the regulated voltage and the modulation signal. The converter operates to deliver, through an output line of the power receiver, an output current having a DC value corresponding to the DC value of said regulated voltage and having an AC value corresponding to said modulation signal. | 07-23-2015 |
| 20150194876 | WIRELESSLY ACTIVATED POWER SUPPLY FOR AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE - A power supply includes a power supply circuit and a power-on circuit controlling transitioning of the power supply circuit to a turned-on state. The power-on circuit includes a code driver, a controller coupled to the power supply circuit and code driver, and a transducer to detect a wireless control signal and generate an enable signal based thereupon. A transistor has a first conduction terminal coupled to the code driver, a second conduction terminal coupled to the controller, and a control terminal coupled to the transducer to receive the enable signal so the transistor switches based thereupon. The code driver detects a code embedded in the wireless control signal based upon switching of the transistor, and generates a power on signal for the controller based upon the code. The controller causes the power supply circuit to transition from the turned-off state to the turned-on state based upon the power on signal. | 07-09-2015 |
| 20150175410 | PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING A MICROMECHANICAL STRUCTURE HAVING A BURIED AREA PROVIDED WITH A FILTER - A process for manufacturing a micromechanical structure envisages: forming a buried cavity within a body of semiconductor material, separated from a top surface of the body by a first surface layer; and forming an access duct for fluid communication between the buried cavity and an external environment. The method envisages: forming an etching mask on the top surface at a first access area; forming a second surface layer on the top surface and on the etching mask; carrying out an etch such as to remove, in a position corresponding to the first access area, a portion of the second surface layer, and an underlying portion of the first surface layer not covered by the etching mask until the buried cavity is reached, thus forming both the first access duct and a filter element, set between the first access duct and the same buried cavity. | 06-25-2015 |
| 20150140767 | PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING DEVICES FOR POWER APPLICATIONS IN INTEGRATED CIRCUITS - A MOS transistor for power applications is formed in a substrate of semiconductor material by a method integrated in a process for manufacturing integrated circuits which uses an STI technique for forming insulating regions. The method includes the phases of forming an insulating element on a top surface of the substrate and forming a control electrode on a free surface of the insulating element. The insulating element insulates the control electrode from the substrate. The insulating element includes a first portion and a second portion. The extension of the first portion along a first direction perpendicular to the top surface is lower than the extension of the second portion along such first direction. The phase of forming the insulating element includes generating the second portion by locally oxidizing the top surface. | 05-21-2015 |
| 20150140750 | PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING INTEGRATED DEVICE INCORPORATING LOW-VOLTAGE COMPONENTS AND POWER COMPONENTS - An integrated device includes: a semiconductor body having a first, depressed, portion and second portions which project from the first portion; a STI structure, extending on the first portion of the semiconductor body, which delimits laterally the second portions and has a face adjacent to a surface of the first portion; low-voltage CMOS components, housed in the second portions, in a first region of the semiconductor body; and a power component, in a second region of the semiconductor body. The power component has at least one conduction region, formed in the first portion of the semiconductor body, and a conduction contact, coupled to the conduction region and traversing the STI structure in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the first portion of the semiconductor body. | 05-21-2015 |
| 20150135846 | PACKAGE, MADE OF BUILDING MATERIAL, FOR A PARAMETER MONITORING DEVICE, WITHIN A SOLID STRUCTURE, AND RELATIVE DEVICE - A package for a device to be inserted into a solid structure may include a building material that includes particles of one of micrometric and sub-micrometric dimensions. The device may include an integrated detection module having at least one integrated sensor and the package arranged to coat at least one portion of the device including the integrated detection module. A method aspect includes a method of manufacturing the device. A system aspect is for monitoring parameters in a solid structure that includes the device. | 05-21-2015 |
| 20150054088 | INTEGRATED DEVICE WITH RAISED LOCOS INSULATION REGIONS AND PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING SUCH DEVICE - An integrated device includes a semiconductor body including an STI insulating structure that laterally delimits first active areas and at least one second active area in a low-voltage region and in a power region of the semiconductor body, respectively. Low-voltage CMOS components are housed in the first active areas. A power component, formed in the second active area, includes a source region, a body region, a drain-contact region, and at least one LOCOS insulation region. The insulating region is arranged between the body region and the drain-contact region and has a prominent portion that emerges from a surface of the semiconductor body, and an embedded portion inside it. The prominent portion of the LOCOS insulation region has a volume greater than that of the embedded portion. | 02-26-2015 |
| 20150049791 | REACQUISITION METHOD OF A CDMA MODULATED SATELLITE SIGNALS AND RECEIVING APPARATUS IMPLEMENTING THE METHOD - Acquiring a satellite signal, by, receiving a CDMA-modulated signal; generating a plurality of CDMA-type test signals comprising a reference test signal having a first chip duration, and a plurality of test signals delayed/anticipated of a corresponding time offset from the respective test reference signal, less than the chip duration; calculating correlations between the CDMA-modulated signal and the plurality of test signals for obtaining a plurality of correlation results; selecting, based on the correlation results, acquisition parameters associated to a candidate satellite signal; acquiring or rejecting the acquisition parameters selected based on the correlation results. | 02-19-2015 |
| 20150044110 | MICROFLUIDIC DEVICE WITH HYDROPHOBIC SURFACE MODIFICATION LAYER AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF - A microfluidic device includes a support body having a first surface and a second surface opposite to one another. The first surface is hydrophilic. A surface modification layer extends over the first surface of the support body. At least one opening is formed to extend through the surface modification layer and expose a portion of the first surface. The surface modification layer is hydrophobic. In particular, the surface modification layer is made of a photodefinible material chosen from among: an epoxy resin, a polyamide, and a photocurable siloxane-based polymer. The openings are functionalized using probe molecules designed to bind with specific target molecules to be detected. | 02-12-2015 |
| 20150022131 | ELECTRIC CIRCUIT AND METHOD FOR ESTIMATING THE ANGULAR POSITION OF A ROTOR OF AN ELECTRIC MOTOR, AND DEVICE FOR CONTROLLING AN ELECTRIC MOTOR - Electric circuit for estimating the angular position of a rotor of an electric motor, including: a sensing module configured to receive at least one electric signal representative of a drive current of the electric motor and to generate a measurement signal indicative of a switching of the at least one electric signal and a switching index indicative of the type of switching, rising or falling, of the at least one electric signal; and a computing module configured to supply, from the measurement signal and switching index a position signal representative of an angular position of the electric motor rotor. | 01-22-2015 |
| 20150020040 | METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC DESIGN OF AN ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT, CORRESPONDING SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - A method for the automatic design of an electronic circuit includes operations for evaluation of the thermal effects in the electronic circuit. The method generates a layout of the electronic circuit. Abstract data at the substrate level associated to the layout of the electronic circuit is then generated. A grid of partitioning is generated with respect to a view regarding the aforesaid abstract into meshes and nodes. The grid is applied to the substrate. On the basis of the grid (TG), a list of nodes or netlist representing a thermal network that represents the thermal behavior of the substrate or of its portions or elements is extracted. The netlist is useful in simulation operations, in particular of a SPICE type, for making an evaluation of thermal effects in the electronic circuit. | 01-15-2015 |
| 20150019194 | METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC DESIGN OF AN ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT, CORRESPONDING SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - A method for automatic design of a circuit evaluates thermal effects and electrical effects in a coupled way. A description of the circuit is obtained in terms of a list of simulator nodes or netlist. Using the description, the electrical behavior of the circuit and the thermal behavior of the circuit is simulated. The simulation includes configuring the simulation operation for operating with descriptions of models or sub-circuits of the circuit that are defined using a thermal node. An equivalent current generator is connected to the thermal node to force an equivalent current representing dissipated power. A voltage that is produced on the thermal node is associated with an increase in temperature of the model or sub-circuit with respect to the global temperature. | 01-15-2015 |
| 20150008519 | POWER INTEGRATED DEVICE HAVING SURFACE CORRUGATIONS - According to a process for manufacturing an integrated power device, projections and depressions are formed in a semiconductor body that extend in a first direction and are arranged alternated in succession in a second direction, transversely to the first direction. Further provided are a first conduction region and a second conduction region. The first conduction region and the second conduction region define a current flow direction parallel to the first direction, along the projections and the depressions. To form the projections and the depressions, portions of the semiconductor body that extend in the first direction and correspond to the depressions, are selectively oxidized. | 01-08-2015 |
| 20140354201 | SWITCHING CONTROLLER FOR ELECTRIC MOTORS AND RELATED METHOD OF CONTROLLING ELECTRIC MOTORS - A switching controller of a poly-phase electric motor may generate, in a fully digital manner, a replica of the phase current and/or of the phase (star) voltage of one or more windings of the motor. The switching controller may use digital signals already available for driving the motor to reconstruct a replica of the phase current or the phase voltage, and thereby avoid the need for dedicated analog components for phase current or phase voltage determination. | 12-04-2014 |
| 20140353785 | LOW-CONSUMPTION, AMR-TYPE, INTEGRATED MAGNETORESISTOR - An integrated magnetoresistive sensor ( | 12-04-2014 |
| 20140353780 | DETECTION STRUCTURE FOR A MEMS ACOUSTIC TRANSDUCER WITH IMPROVED ROBUSTNESS TO DEFORMATION - A micromechanical structure for a MEMS capacitive acoustic transducer, has: a substrate of semiconductor material; a rigid electrode, at least in part of conductive material, coupled to the substrate; a membrane, at least in part of conductive material, facing the rigid electrode and coupled to the substrate, which undergoes deformation in the presence of incident acoustic pressure waves and is arranged between the substrate and the rigid electrode and has a first surface and a second surface, in fluid communication, respectively, with a first chamber and a second chamber, the first chamber being delimited at least in part by a first wall portion and by a second wall portion formed by the substrate, and the second chamber being delimited at least in part by the rigid electrode; and a stopper element, connected between the first and second wall portions for limiting the deformations of the membrane. At least one electrode-anchorage element couples the rigid electrode to the stopper element. | 12-04-2014 |
| 20140353775 | WAFER-LEVEL PACKAGING OF INTEGRATED DEVICES, AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF - A wafer-level packaging, comprising: a first semiconductor body integrating a MEMS structure; a second semiconductor body, including a surface electrical-contact region and an ASIC coupled to the MEMS structure and to said electrical-contact region; a first coating layer, made of resin, which englobes and protects the first body, the second body, and the electrical-contact region; at least one first conductive through via, which extends through the first coating layer in an area corresponding, and electrically coupled, to the first electrical-contact region; an electrical-contact pad, which extends over the first coating layer, electrically coupled to the first conductive through via; a third semiconductor body, integrating an electronic circuit, glued on the first coating layer; a second coating layer, made of resin, which englobes and protects the third body; at least one second conductive through via, which extends completely through the second coating layer in an area corresponding, and electrically coupled, to the electrical-contact pad; and a further electrical-contact pad electrically coupled to the second conductive through via. | 12-04-2014 |
| 20140352819 | MEMBRANE MICROFLUIDIC VALVE AND PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING A MEMBRANE MICROFLUIDIC VALVE - A microfluidic valve includes: a first structural layer and a second structural layer; a microfluidic circuit having a first microfluidic conduit and a second microfluidic conduit, which are defined in a superficial portion of the first structural layer, are adjacent, and are separated by a wall; a membrane set between the first structural layer and the second structural layer and delimiting the microfluidic circuit on one side; and a recess containing a gaseous fluid in the second structural layer. The membrane is movable in response to an actuation stimulus between a closed position, in which the first and second microfluidic conduits are fluidly decoupled, and an open position, in which the membrane is at least in part retracted into the recess and the first and second microfluidic conduits are fluidly coupled by means of a fluidic passage defined between the wall and the membrane. | 12-04-2014 |
| 20140348239 | PANNING FILTER DEVICE, CORRESPONDING METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - A panning device for processing relative motion vectors and absolute motion vectors obtained from a video sequence, includes: a panning filter module, such as a high-pass IIR filter, for subjecting relative motion vectors to panning processing, an adder module for adding the relative motion vectors subjected to panning in the panning filter module to absolute motion vectors to obtain respective summed values of motion vectors, a clipping module for subjecting the summed values of motion vectors obtained in the adder module to clipping according to a selected cropping window for obtaining final output absolute motion vectors, a first leak integrator arranged after the panning filter module, and a second leak integrator arranged after the clipping module. | 11-27-2014 |
| 20140347244 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE FOR ELECTROMAGNETIC EXPANSION AND CONCENTRATION - An electronic device for electromagnetic expansion and concentration is described, including: —a module to be monitored including a first antenna and an integrated control circuitry, the first antenna being electrically coupled to the integrated control circuitry; an electromagnetic expansion and concentration module comprising a second antenna configured to communicate with a remote antenna of an external data collection and control device, relative to the electromagnetic expansion and concentration module, by an electromagnetic coupling, said electromagnetic expansion and concentration module comprising a third antenna electrically coupled to said second antenna, said third antenna being configured to communicate with said first antenna of the module to be monitored by a near-field magnetic coupling. The second antenna is configured to communicate with said remote antenna, relative to the electromagnetic expansion and concentration module by a far-field electromagnetic coupling. The electromagnetic expansion and concentration module further comprises a fourth antenna electrically coupled between said second antenna and said third antenna, said fourth antenna being configured to communicate with a further remote antenna of a further external data collection and control device, relative to the electromagnetic expansion and concentration module by a near-field magnetic coupling. | 11-27-2014 |
| 20140346588 | SUPERJUNCTION POWER DEVICE AND MANUFACTURING METHOD - A method for manufacturing a semiconductor power device, comprising the steps of: forming a trench in a semiconductor body having a first type of conductivity; partially filling the trench with semiconductor material via epitaxial growth so as to obtain a first column having a second type of conductivity and having an internal cavity. The epitaxial growth includes simultaneously supplying a gas containing dopant ions of the second type of conductivity, hydrochloric acid HCl in gaseous form and dichlorosilane DCS in gaseous form, so that the ratio between the amount of HCl and the amount of DCS has a value of from 3.5 to 5.5. | 11-27-2014 |
| 20140344485 | COMMUNICATION SYSTEM FOR INTERFACING A PLURALITY OF TRANSMISSION CIRCUITS WITH AN INTERCONNECTION NETWORK, AND CORRESPONDING INTEGRATED CIRCUIT - A communication system is arranged to interface a plurality of transmission circuits with an interconnection network. Each transmission circuit generates read requests and/or write requests. The communication system includes a first circuit that operates independently of the communication protocol of the interconnection network. In particular, the first circuit includes, a) for each transmission circuit a communication interface configured for receiving the read requests and/or write requests from the respective transmission circuit, b) a segmentation circuit configured for dividing, i.e., segmenting, the read requests and/or write requests received from the transmission circuits into transfer segments, and c) an interleaving circuit configured for generating, via an operation of interleaving of the transfer segments, a series of segments. The communication system also includes a second circuit configured for converting the transfer segments of the series of segments into data packets according to the protocol of the interconnection network and for transmitting the data packets to the interconnection network. | 11-20-2014 |
| 20140339398 | AVALANCHE PHOTODIODE OPERATING IN GEIGER MODE INCLUDING A STRUCTURE FOR ELECTRO-OPTICAL CONFINEMENT FOR CROSSTALK REDUCTION, AND ARRAY OF PHOTODIODES - An avalanche photodiode includes a cathode region and an anode region. A lateral insulating region including a barrier region and an insulating region surrounds the anode region. The cathode region forms a planar optical guide within a core of the cathode region, the guide being configured to guide photons generated during avalanche. The barrier region has a thickness extending through the planar optical guide to surround the core and prevent propagation of the photons beyond the barrier region. The core forms an electrical-confinement region for minority carriers generated within the core. | 11-20-2014 |
| 20140336956 | METHOD AND PROCESSING SYSTEM OF SENSED IONIZATION CURRENT DATA FOR REAL TIME ESTIMATION OF COMBUSTION CHAMBER PRESSURE IN A SPARK IGNITION ENGINE - The pressure in the combustion chamber of an electronically controlled spark plug ignition engine may be estimated in real time mode without specific sensors by processing sensed ionization current data to calculate features of the current waveform proven to be correlated to the pressure inside the engine cylinders and correlating them on the basis of a look up table of time invariant correlation coefficients generated through a calibration campaign of tests on a test engine purposely equipped with sensors. A mathematical model of the electrical and physical spark plug ignition system and combustion chamber of the engine is refined during calibration by iteratively testing the interactive performance of correlation coefficients of related terms of a mathematical expression of the model and comparing the expressed pressure value with the real pressure value as measured by a sensor. | 11-13-2014 |
| 20140327566 | METHOD AND DEVICES FOR PROCESSING RADAR SIGNALS - A method for processing signals received by a plurality of receiving antennas in a radar system, for example for road safety, which emits sequences of chirp-modulated signals, wherein the received signals are mixed with local replicas of the transmitted signals so as to generate, for each receiving antenna, a sequence of detection signals. The detection signals are subjected to Fourier-transform processing and beam-forming processing for generating values of range, azimuth, and speed for at least one obstacle or “target” detected by the radar system. The method includes an acquisition process for yielding approximate values of range and azimuth of the obstacle, and a tracking process for yielding accurate range, azimuth and speed values of the obstacle itself. | 11-06-2014 |
| 20140323871 | METHOD OF SETTING A WAVEFORM SIGNAL IN AN ULTRASOUND IMAGING APPARATUS AND APPARATUS FOR SETTING AN ULTRASONIC WAVEFORM SIGNAL USING SUCH METHOD - A digital representation of a waveform is generated based on signals received during a recording period. The received signals include a digital clock signal providing a determined number of clock pulses during the recording period, a plurality of binary digital signals defining, for each clock pulse of the determined number of clock pulses, a waveform state associated with the clock pulse. A digital representation of the waveform is generated and storing. The waveform has a duration based on the recording period and a profile based on the defined waveform states associated with the clock pulses of the determined number of clock pulses. | 10-30-2014 |
| 20140320218 | DIGITALLY CONTROLLED OSCILLATOR CALIBRATION CIRCUIT AND METHOD - A calibration circuit for a DCO includes a signal-conditioning module configured for (i) receiving at input an oscillating signal generated by the DCO and a reference signal, both designed to oscillate between a high logic value (“1”) and a low logic value (“0”), and (ii) detecting a respective first and second stable logic value of the reference signal and of the oscillating signal; and a period-to-voltage converter module coupled to the signal-conditioning module and configured for (iii) generating a difference signal identifying a difference between the period of the reference signal and the period of the oscillating signal, and (iv) controlling, on the basis of the difference signal, the DCO so as to conform the duration of the period of the oscillating signal to the duration of the period of the reference signal. Likewise described is a calibration method implemented by the calibration circuit. | 10-30-2014 |
| 20140319655 | METHOD FOR COUPLING A GRAPHENE LAYER AND A SUBSTRATE AND DEVICE COMPRISING THE GRAPHENE/SUBSTRATE STRUCTURE OBTAINED - The present disclosure regards a method for coupling a graphene layer to a substrate having at least one hydrophilic surface, the method comprising the steps of providing the substrate having at least one hydrophilic surface, depositing on the hydrophilic surface a layer of a solvent selected in the group constituted by acetone, ethyl lactate, isopropyl alcohol, methylethyl ketone and mixtures thereof and depositing on the solvent layer a graphene layer. It moreover regards an electronic device comprising the graphene/substrate structure obtained. | 10-30-2014 |
| 20140319630 | WAFER LEVEL ASSEMBLY OF A MEMS SENSOR DEVICE AND RELATED MEMS SENSOR DEVICE - An assembly of a MEMS sensor device envisages: a first die, integrating a micromechanical detection structure and having an external main face; a second die, integrating an electronic circuit operatively coupled to the micromechanical detection structure, electrically and mechanically coupled to the first die and having a respective external main face. Both of the external main faces of the first die and of the second die are set in direct contact with an environment external to the assembly, without interposition of a package. | 10-30-2014 |
| 20140313264 | METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING A FLUID EJECTION DEVICE AND FLUID EJECTION DEVICE - A method for manufacturing a fluid ejection device, comprising the steps of: providing a first semiconductor body having a membrane layer and a piezoelectric actuator which extends over the membrane layer; forming a cavity underneath the membrane layer to form a suspended membrane; providing a second semiconductor body; making, in the second semiconductor body, an inlet through hole configured to form a supply channel of the fluid ejection device; providing a third semiconductor body; forming a recess in the third semiconductor body; forming an outlet channel through the third semiconductor body to form an ejection nozzle of the fluid ejection device; coupling the first semiconductor body with the third semiconductor body and the first semiconductor body with the second semiconductor body in such a way that the piezoelectric actuator is completely housed in the first recess, and the second recess forms an internal chamber of the fluid ejection device. | 10-23-2014 |
| 20140312925 | VIBRATING DEVICE FOR POSITIONING A MINIATURIZED PIECE IN A TESTING ACCOMMODATION, AND POSITIONING METHOD - An embodiment of a device for positioning a miniaturized piece, including: a positioning structure, which forms a first cavity, designed to receive with play the miniaturized piece, and a second cavity communicating with the first cavity; at least one electrical-contact terminal, facing the second cavity and electrically coupleable to an electronic testing device, designed to carry out an electrical test on the miniaturized piece; and an actuator device, which causes a vibration of the positioning structure, the vibration being such that the miniaturized piece translates, in use, towards the second cavity, until it penetrates at least in part into the second cavity. | 10-23-2014 |
| 20140312919 | CONFIGURABLE ANALOG FRONT-END FOR MUTUAL CAPACITANCE SENSING AND SELF CAPACITANCE SENSING - Capacitance sensing circuits and methods are provided. A dual mode capacitance sensing circuit includes a capacitance-to-voltage converter having an amplifier and an integration capacitance coupled between an output and an inverting input of the amplifier, and a switching circuit responsive to mutual mode control signals for a controlling signal supplied from a capacitive touch matrix to the capacitive to voltage converter in a mutual capacitance sensing mode and responsive to self mode control signals for controlling signals supplied from the capacitive touch matrix to the capacitance-to-voltage converter in a self capacitance sensing mode, wherein the capacitance sensing circuit is configurable for operation in the mutual capacitance sensing mode or the self capacitance sensing mode. | 10-23-2014 |
| 20140312867 | LOW DROP OUT VOLTAGE REGULATOR AND RELATED METHOD OF GENERATING A REGULATED VOLTAGE - A low drop out voltage regulator includes an operational transconductance amplifier configured to be supplied with a supply voltage of the regulator, receive as inputs a reference voltage and a feedback voltage, and generate an intermediate current based upon a difference between the reference voltage and the feedback voltage. A current-to-voltage amplification stage is configured to be supplied with a boosted voltage greater than the supply voltage from a high voltage line, receive as input the intermediate current, and generate a driving voltage that is changed based upon the intermediate current. A pass transistor is controlled with the driving voltage to keep constant on a second conduction terminal thereof a regulated output voltage. A feedback network generates the feedback voltage based on the regulated output voltage. | 10-23-2014 |
| 20140312484 | ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY FOR MOUNTING ON ELECTRONIC BOARD - An embodiment of an electronic assembly for mounting on an electronic board includes a plurality of electric contact regions exposed on a mounting surface of the electronic board. The electronic assembly includes a chip of semiconductor material in which at least one electronic component is integrated, at least one support element including a first main surface and a second main surface opposite to the first main surface, the chip being enclosed by the at least one support element, a heat dissipation plate thermally coupled to said chip to dissipate the heat produced by it, exposed on the first main surface of the support element, a plurality of contact elements, each electrically coupled to a respective electric terminal of the electronic component integrated in the chip, exposed on the same first main surface of which is exposed to the dissipation plate. Also included are a plurality of electric connection elements, each adapted to electrically intercouple a respective contact element of the electronic assembly with a corresponding electric contact region of the electronic board, in such a way that the second main surface of the at least one support element faces the mounting surface of the electronic board. | 10-23-2014 |
| 20140308738 | MICROFLUIDIC DEVICE WITH INTEGRATED STIRRING STRUCTURE AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF - A microfluidic device, comprising: a semiconductor body, having a first side and a second side, opposite to one another in a first direction; and at least one well, configured for containing a fluid, extending in the semiconductor body starting from the first side and being delimited at the bottom by a bottom surface. The microfluidic device further comprises a stirring structure integrated in the well at the bottom surface, the stirring structure including a first stirring portion coupled to the semiconductor body and provided with at least one first suspended beam configured for being moved in a second direction so as to generate, in use, agitation of the fluid present in said well. | 10-16-2014 |
| 20140301042 | MANUFACTURING OF A HEAT SINK BY WAVE SOLDERING - An electronic device is attached to a first surface of a board which includes vias. A heat sink precursor for the electronic device is attached to the second surface of the electronic board. The heat sink precursor includes a cavity facing the vias. A wave of solder paste is applied to the second surface. The solder paste penetrates into the cavity of the heat sink precursor and flows by capillary action through the vias to weld a thermal radiator and/or electronic contact of the electronic device to the vias. The solder paste further remains in the cavity to form a corresponding heat sink. | 10-09-2014 |
| 20140300005 | MULTILEVEL INTERCONNECT STRUCTURES AND METHODS OF FABRICATING SAME - A multilevel interconnect structure for a semiconductor device includes an intermetal dielectric layer with funnel-shaped connecting vias. The funnel-shaped connecting vias are provided in connection with systems exhibiting submicron spacings. The architecture of the multilevel interconnect structure provides a low resistance connecting via. | 10-09-2014 |
| 20140292419 | POWER OSCILLATOR APPARATUS WITH TRANSFORMER-BASED POWER COMBINING - An oscillator circuit includes first and second oscillators arranged in a series configuration between a supply voltage node and a reference voltage node. The first and second oscillators are configured to receive a synchronizing signal for controlling synchronization in frequency and phase. An electromagnetic network provided to couple the first and the second oscillators includes a transformer with a primary circuit and a secondary circuit. The primary circuit includes a first portion coupled to the first oscillator and second portion coupled to the second oscillator. The first and second portions are connected by a circuit element for reuse of current between the first and second oscillators. The oscillator circuit is fabricated as an integrated circuit device wherein the electromagnetic network is formed in metallization layers of the device. The secondary circuit generates an output power combining power provided from the first and second portions of the primary circuit. | 10-02-2014 |
| 20140291778 | INTEGRATED DEVICE OF A CAPACITIVE TYPE FOR DETECTING HUMIDITY, IN PARTICULAR MANUFACTURED USING A CMOS TECHNOLOGY - An integrated capacitive-type humidity sensor formed in a semiconductor chip integrating a sensing capacitor and a reference capacitor. Each of the sensing and reference capacitors have at least a first electrode and at least a second electrode, the first and second electrodes of each of the sensing and reference capacitors being arranged at distance and mutually insulated. A hygroscopic layer extends on the sensing and reference capacitors and a conductive shielding region extends on the reference capacitor but not on the sensing capacitor. | 10-02-2014 |
| 20140291152 | MICROREACTOR AND METHOD FOR LOADING A LIQUID - A microreactor includes: a substrate ( | 10-02-2014 |
| 20140289363 | METHOD FOR DISTRIBUTING INFORMATION CONTENTS, CORRESPONDING DEVICE AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - In an embodiment, information contents, such as, e.g., media contents arranged in pieces including blocks of bits, is distributed over a network including plural terminals at least one of which acts as a source of the pieces of information distributed. Various terminals in the network are configured to act as peer terminals with at least one first peer terminal sending the information to one or more second peer terminals. A set of blocks of a corresponding piece of information is received at the first peer terminal and the corresponding piece of information is reconstructed from the set of blocks received. The pieces of information distributed over the network are fountain encoded by XOR-ing the blocks in a piece, so that a received piece is reconstructable from a combination of a corresponding set of linearly independent XOR-ed blocks. The first peer terminal may start sending to the second peer terminal(s) blocks it is receiving before the corresponding piece of information is reconstructed and possibly subjected to integrity check at the first terminal. Fountain encoding the pieces of information is by means of plural sets of linearly independent XOR-ed blocks. A same piece of information is distributed to a plurality of peer terminals by sending thereto different sets of linearly independent XOR-ed blocks, thus avoiding undue redundancy in the information further propagated to other peers. | 09-25-2014 |
| 20140287239 | GRAPHENE BASED FILLER MATERIAL OF SUPERIOR THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY FOR CHIP ATTACHMENT IN MICROSTRUCTURE DEVICES - An integrated circuit chip attachment in a microstructure device is accomplished through the use of an adhesive-based material in which graphene flakes are incorporated. This results in superior thermal conductivity. The spatial orientation of the graphene flakes is controlled, for example by adhering polar molecules to the graphene flakes and exposing the flakes to an external force field, so that the graphene flakes have desired orientations under the integrated circuit chip, alongside of the integrated circuit chip and above the integrated circuit chip. | 09-25-2014 |
| 20140286509 | MICROELECTROMECHANICAL SENSING STRUCTURE FOR A CAPACITIVE ACOUSTIC TRANSDUCER INCLUDING AN ELEMENT LIMITING THE OSCILLATIONS OF A MEMBRANE, AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF - A microelectromechanical sensing structure for a capacitive acoustic transducer, including: a semiconductor substrate; a rigid electrode; and a membrane set between the substrate and the rigid electrode, the membrane having a first surface and a second surface, which are in fluid communication, respectively, with a first chamber and a second chamber, respectively, the first chamber being delimited at least in part by a first wall portion and a second wall portion formed at least in part by the substrate, the second chamber being delimited at least in part by the rigid electrode, the membrane being moreover designed to undergo deformation following upon incidence of pressure waves and facing the rigid electrode so as to form a sensing capacitor having a capacitance that varies as a function of the deformation of the membrane. The structure moreover includes a beam, which is connected to the first and second wall portions and is designed to limit the oscillations of the membrane. | 09-25-2014 |
| 20140284669 | OPTOELECTRONIC INTEGRATED DEVICE INCLUDING A PHOTODETECTOR AND A MOSFET TRANSISTOR, AND MANUFACTURING PROCESS THEREOF - An optoelectronic integrated device includes a body made of semiconductor material, which is delimited by a front surface and includes a substrate having a first type of conductivity, an epitaxial region, which has the first type of conductivity and forms the front surface, and a ring region having a second type of conductivity, which extends into the epitaxial region from the front surface, and delimiting an internal region. The optoelectronic integrated device moreover includes a MOSFET including at least one body region having the second type of conductivity, which contacts the ring region and extends at least in part into the internal region from the front surface. A photodetector includes a photodetector region having the second type of conductivity, and extends into the semiconductor body starting from the front surface, contacting the ring region. | 09-25-2014 |
| 20140264852 | METHOD FOR FORMING BUMPS IN SUBSTRATES WITH THROUGH VIAS - A method for manufacturing solder bumps for through vias in a substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposed to each other. The method includes the steps of forming a blind hole extending in the substrate from the first surface for each via and filling each blind hole with a conductive filler; a deepest part of each filler includes a bump portion made of a solder material. The method further includes the step of removing a part of the substrate extending from the second surface to have at least the bump portions protrude from the substrate. The non-protruding part of each filler defines the corresponding via and the bump portion defines the corresponding bump. | 09-18-2014 |
| 20140260609 | MICROELECTROMECHANICAL DEVICE HAVING AN OSCILLATING MASS AND A FORCING STAGE, AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING A MICROELECTROMECHANICAL DEVICE - A microelectromechanical device includes: a body; a movable mass, elastically coupled to the body and oscillatable with respect to the body according to a degree of freedom; a frequency detector, configured to detect a current oscillation frequency of the movable mass; and a forcing stage, capacitively coupled to the movable mass and configured to provide energy to the movable mass through forcing signals having a forcing frequency equal to the current oscillation frequency detected by the frequency detector, at least in a first transient operating condition. | 09-18-2014 |
| 20140252524 | ARRAY OF MUTUALLY ISOLATED, GEIGER-MODE, AVALANCHE PHOTODIODES AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF - An embodiment of array of Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes, wherein each photodiode is formed by a body of semiconductor material, having a first conductivity type and housing an anode region, of a second conductivity type, facing a top surface of the body, a cathode-contact region, having the first conductivity type and a higher doping level than the body, facing a bottom surface of the body, an insulation region extending through the body and insulating an active area from the rest of the body, the active area housing the anode region and the cathode-contact region. The insulation region is formed by a first mirror region of polycrystalline silicon, a second mirror region of metal material, and a channel-stopper region of dielectric material, surrounding the first and second mirror regions. | 09-11-2014 |
| 20140252509 | MEMS DEVICE AND CORRESPONDING MICROMECHANICAL STRUCTURE WITH INTEGRATED COMPENSATION OF THERMO-MECHANICAL STRESS - A micromechanical structure of a MEMS device, integrated in a die of semiconductor material provided with a substrate and having at least a first axis of symmetry lying in a horizontal plane, has a stator structure, which is fixed with respect to the substrate, and a rotor structure, having a suspended mass, mobile with respect to the substrate and to the stator structure as a result of an external action, the stator structure having fixed sensing electrodes capacitively coupled to the rotor structure; a compensation structure is integrated in the die for compensation of thermo-mechanical strains. The compensation structure has stator compensation electrodes, which are fixed with respect to the substrate, are capacitively coupled to the rotor structure, and are arranged symmetrically to the fixed sensing electrodes with respect to the first axis of symmetry. | 09-11-2014 |
| 20140251805 | SENSOR FOR DETECTING HYDROGEN IONS IN AN AQUEOUS SOLUTION - The present disclosure relates to a sensor for detecting hydrogen ions in an aqueous solution comprising a support, a reference electrode, a working electrode and a counter electrode supported by said support, the reference electrode being made of a material comprising silver and silver chloride, the counter electrode being made of a conductive material. The working electrode comprises a substrate and a layer made of an inherently electrically conductive polymer of the polythiophene or polyaniline (PANI) or polypyrrole class. | 09-11-2014 |
| 20140239917 | ENERGY HARVESTING SYSTEM WITH SELECTIVELY ACTIVATABLE HARVESTING INTERFACE, AND METHOD OF ENERGY HARVESTING - An energy-harvesting system includes a transducer to convert environmental energy into a harvesting electrical signal. A storage element stores electrical energy derived from conversion of the harvested environmental energy. A harvesting interface supplies an electrical charging signal to the storage element. The harvesting interface is selectively connected to the storage element in response to a control signal. The control signal causes the connection when the harvesting electrical signal exceeds a threshold. Conversely, the control signal causes the disconnection when the harvesting electrical signal is less than the threshold. | 08-28-2014 |
| 20140239502 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE COMPRISING AT LEAST A CHIP ENCLOSED IN A PACKAGE AND A CORRESPONDING ASSEMBLY PROCESS - An electronic device is described comprising at least one chip enclosed in a package, in turn provided with a metallic structure or leadframe having a plurality of connection pins, this chip having at least one first contact realized on a first face and at least one second contact realized on a second and opposite face of this chip. The chip comprises at least one through via crossing the whole section of the chip as well as a metallic layer extending from the second contact arranged on the first face, along walls of the at least one through via up to the second and opposite face in correspondence with an additional pad. The electronic device comprises at least one interconnection layer for the electrical and mechanical connection between the chip and the metallic structure having at least one portion realized in correspondence with the at least one through via so as to bring the second contact placed on the second face of the chip back on its first face. An assembly process of such an electronic device is also described. | 08-28-2014 |
| 20140239413 | POWER ELECTRONIC DEVICE - A device includes a first and second transistors integrated in first and second chips. Each chip has opposed rear and front surfaces, and further has a first conduction terminal and a control terminal on the front surface and a second conduction terminal on the rear surface. The first and second transistors are electrically connected in series by having the first conduction terminals of the first and second transistors be electrically connected. The device includes a common package enclosing the first and second chips, the common package having an insulating body with a mounting surface. A heat sink is also enclosed within the insulating body, the heat sink making electrical contact with the first conduction terminals of the first and second chips on the respective front surfaces, so that the first conduction terminals are electrically connected together through the heat sink. | 08-28-2014 |
| 20140232189 | ENHANCED DC-DC CONVERTER, METHOD FOR OPERATING THE DC-DC CONVERTER, ENVIRONMENTAL ENERGY-HARVESTING SYSTEM COMPRISING THE DC-DC CONVERTER, AND APPARATUS COMPRISING THE ENERGY-HARVESTING SYSTEM - A DC-DC converter independently supplies electrical loads. For each load, an output load signal is compared to a reference to generate a result indicating a need to supply the respective electrical load. A first detection is made as to whether a first electrical load needs to be supplied and a second detection is made as to whether any remaining electrical loads need to be supplied. The first electrical load is supplied if the first detection is positive and the second detection is negative. | 08-21-2014 |
| 20140230548 | MICROELECTROMECHANICAL GYROSCOPE WITH ROTARY DRIVING MOTION AND IMPROVED ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES - An integrated microelectromechanical structure is provided with: a die, having a substrate and a frame, defining inside it a detection region and having a first side extending along a first axis; a driving mass, anchored to the substrate, set in the detection region, and designed to be rotated in a plane with a movement of actuation about a vertical axis; and a first pair and a second pair of first sensing masses, suspended inside the driving mass via elastic supporting elements so as to be fixed with respect thereto in the movement of actuation and so as to perform a detection movement of rotation out of the plane in response to a first angular velocity; wherein the first sensing masses of the first pair and the first sensing masses of the second pair are aligned in respective directions, having non-zero inclinations of opposite sign with respect to the first axis. | 08-21-2014 |
| 20140217938 | MOTOR CONTROLLER WITH DRIVE-SIGNAL CONDITIONING - An embodiment of a motor controller includes a motor driver and a signal conditioner. The motor driver is operable to generate a motor-coil drive signal having a first component at a first frequency, and the signal conditioner is coupled to the motor driver and is operable to alter the first component. For example, if the first component of the motor-coil drive signal causes the motor to audibly vibrate (e.g., “whine”), then the signal conditioner may alter the amplitude or phase of the first component to reduce the vibration noise to below a threshold level. | 08-07-2014 |
| 20140204227 | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR STABILIZING VIDEO SEQUENCES, RELATED VIDEO-CAPTURE APPARATUS AND COMPUTER-PROGRAM PRODUCT - According to an embodiment, a sequence of video frames as produced in a video-capture apparatus such as a video camera is stabilized against hand shaking or vibration by:—subjecting a pair of frames in the sequence to feature extraction and matching to produce a set of matched features;—subjecting the set of matched features to an outlier removal step; and—generating stabilized frames via motion-model estimation based on features resulting from outlier removal. Motion-model estimation is performed based on matched features having passed a zone-of-interest test confirmative that the matched features passing the test are distributed over a plurality of zones across the frames. | 07-24-2014 |
| 20140202453 | PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING AN INTEGRATED MEMBRANE OF NOZZLES IN MEMS TECHNOLOGY FOR A SPRAY DEVICE AND SPRAY DEVICE USING SUCH MEMBRANE - A process for manufacturing a membrane of nozzles of a spray device, comprising the steps of laying a substrate, forming a membrane layer on the substrate, forming a plurality of nozzles in the membrane layer, forming a plurality of supply channels in the substrate, each supply channel being substantially aligned in a vertical direction to a respective nozzle of the plurality of nozzles and in direct communication with the respective nozzle. | 07-24-2014 |
| 20140199807 | THIN FILM TRANSISTORS FORMED BY ORGANIC SEMICONDUCTORS USING A HYBRID PATTERNING REGIME - The present disclosure describes a process strategy for forming bottom gate/bottom contact organic TFTs in CMOS technology by using a hybrid deposition/patterning regime. To this end, gate electrodes, gate dielectric materials and drain and source electrodes are formed on the basis of lithography processes, while the organic semiconductor materials are provided as the last layers by using a spatially selective printing process. | 07-17-2014 |
| 20140198366 | MIRROR MICROMECHANICAL STRUCTURE AND RELATED MANUFACTURING PROCESS - A mirror micromechanical structure has a mobile mass carrying a mirror element. The mass is drivable in rotation for reflecting an incident light beam with a desired angular range. The mobile mass is suspended above a cavity obtained in a supporting body. The cavity is shaped so that the supporting body does not hinder the reflected light beam within the desired angular range. In particular, the cavity extends as far as a first side edge wall of the supporting body of the mirror micromechanical structure. The cavity is open towards, and in communication with, the outside of the mirror micromechanical structure at the first side edge wall. | 07-17-2014 |
| 20140197872 | LEVEL SHIFTER DEVICE - A level shifter includes a first terminal configured to receive a first supply voltage, a second terminal configured to receive a second supply voltage, an input terminal configured to receive an input signal and an output terminal. The level shifter is configured to shift the input signal from the level of the first supply voltage to the level of the second supply voltage in outputting the output signal. The level shifter includes a storage circuit for storing the output signal value and configured, when the first supply voltage is no longer available, to force the output terminal to assume the last output voltage value stored by the storage circuit when the first supply voltage was available and before the first supply voltage was not available. | 07-17-2014 |
| 20140197752 | CURRENT DRIVER FOR AN ARRAY OF LED DIODES - An array of LED diodes includes N channels each having LEDs coupled in series with a switch. A current driver for the array includes a processing circuit configured to detect N currents flowing respectively through the N channels of the array. The detected currents are converted by a single analog to digital converter, one at a time, into a digital word. The circuit further includes N comparator devices configured to control the N switches as result of a comparison between the digital words and respective target digital words. A memory is provided for storing the digital words received from the analog to digital converter. | 07-17-2014 |
| 20140197747 | CURRENT DRIVER FOR LED DIODES - A current driver for a string of LEDs includes a first series connection of a first transistor and a first resistance and a second series connection of a second transistor and a second resistance. The first and second series connections are coupled in parallel between the string of LEDs and a voltage reference. An operational amplifier selectively drives the first and second transistors in response to a clock signal. A switch device driven by the clock signal alternately applies a reference voltage and a respective one of the voltages across the first and second resistances to inverting and non-inverting inputs of the operational amplifier in response to the clock signal. A storage circuit is coupled to the output of the operational amplifier to store the drive signals for the first and second transistors for application to the first and second transistors in the absence of output from the operational amplifier. | 07-17-2014 |
| 20140197518 | STACKED STRUCTURE SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE - A semiconductor device includes a capacitor formed in a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type. The capacitor includes: a heavily-doped layer of a second conductivity type placed over the substrate, a first insulating layer placed over the heavily-doped layer of the second conductivity type, and a first metal layer placed over the first insulating layer. The semiconductor device further includes comprises a second insulating layer deposited over the capacitor and at least one resistor formed over the second insulating layer. The resistor includes a layer of a resistive material region arranged between two regions of a second metal layer. | 07-17-2014 |
| 20140197517 | TRIMMING CIRCUIT FOR AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT AND RELATED INTEGRATED DEVICE - A trimming circuit is configured to carry out a trimming operation on a device portion of an integrated circuit device. The trimming circuit includes: shunt fuses wherein each shunt fuse is coupled in parallel to a trimming resistance, further resistances wherein each further resistance is coupled in parallel to a respective shunt fuse. The circuit is configured to allow the flow of the trimming current when the respective shunt fuse is burnt during the trimming operation. | 07-17-2014 |
| 20140197487 | LDMOS POWER SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE AND MANUFACTURING METHOD OF THE SAME - An electronic semiconductor device comprising: a semiconductor body, having a first side and a second side opposite to one another and including a first structural region facing the second side, and a second structural region extending over the first structural region and facing the first side; a body region extending in the second structural region at the first side; a source region extending inside the body region; an LDD region facing the first side of the semiconductor body; and a gate electrode. The device comprises: a trench dielectric region extending through the second structural region a first trench conductive region immediately adjacent to the trench dielectric region; and a second trench conductive region in electrical contact with the body region and with the source region. An electrical contact at the second side of the semiconductor body is in electrical contact with the drain region via the first structural region. | 07-17-2014 |
| 20140197452 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE COMPRISING CONDUCTIVE REGIONS AND DUMMY REGIONS - A device includes an epitaxial region extending into a front surface of a chip. A portion of the chip adjacent the epitaxial region defines a collector. A gate is provided in a trench extending into the epitaxial region from the front surface. An emitter includes a body extending into the epitaxial region at a first side of the trench and a source extending into the body region from the front surface at the trench. A dummy emitter extends into the epitaxial region from the front surface at a second side of the trench opposite said first side. The dummy emitter lacks the source. The gate extends along a first wall of the trench facing the emitter region. A dummy gate is formed in the trench in a manner electrically isolated from the gate and extending along a second wall of the trench opposite said first wall. | 07-17-2014 |
| 20140192999 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LOCALIZATION OF AN ACOUSTIC SOURCE AND ACOUSTIC BEAMFORMING - Embodiments include a method and an apparatus for the localization of at least one source of an acoustic signal including: temporally sampling the acoustic signal with a plurality of microphones to obtain a (D+1)-dimensional space-time matrix representation of the acoustic signal, wherein D is the number of spatial dimensions, applying a (D+1)-dimensional Fourier transform to the matrix representation, determining a first peak in a spectrum obtained based on the application of the Fourier transform, and calculating the direction of arrival of the acoustic signal at at least one of the plurality of microphones based on the determined first peak. | 07-10-2014 |
| 20140191779 | CROSSTALK SUPPRESSION IN WIRELESS TESTING OF SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES - An integrated circuit integrated on a semiconductor material die and adapted to be at least partly tested wirelessly, wherein circuitry for setting a selected radio communication frequencies to be used for the wireless test of the integrated circuit are integrated on the semiconductor material die. | 07-10-2014 |
| 20140191343 | SOUND TRANSDUCER AND MICROPHONE USING SAME - Provided is an acoustic transducer including: a semiconductor substrate; a vibrating membrane, provided above the semiconductor substrate, including a vibrating electrode; and a fixed membrane, provided above the semiconductor substrate, including a fixed electrode, the acoustic transducer detecting a sound wave according to changes in capacitances between the vibrating electrode and the fixed electrode, converting the sound wave into electrical signals, and outputting the electrical signals. At least one of the vibrating electrode and the fixed electrode is divided into a plurality of divided electrodes, and the plurality of divided electrodes outputting the electrical signals. | 07-10-2014 |
| 20140191199 | NANOSCALE QCA-BASED LOGIC GATES IN GRAPHENE TECHNOLOGY - QCA assemblies, in which basic cells are formed on the basis of graphene in order to provide a coupling field distribution in the form of an electrostatic field, a magnetic field, and the like which allows a unique association between field distribution and logic state. | 07-10-2014 |
| 20140190258 | MICROELECTROMECHANICAL GYROSCOPE WITH COMPENSATION OF QUADRATURE SIGNAL COMPONENTS - A gyroscope includes: a mass, which is movable with respect to a supporting body; a driving loop for keeping the mass in oscillation according to a driving axis; a reading device, which supplying an output signal indicating an angular speed of the body; and a compensation device, for attenuating spurious signal components in quadrature with respect to a velocity of oscillation of the mass. The reading device includes an amplifier, which supplies a transduction signal indicating a position of the mass according to a sensing axis. The compensation device forms a control loop with the amplifier, extracts from the transduction signal an error signal representing quadrature components in the transduction signal, and supplies to the amplifier a compensation signal such as to attenuate the error signal. | 07-10-2014 |
| 20140185949 | EFFICIENT COMPACT DESCRIPTORS IN VISUAL SEARCH SYSTEMS - Disclosed embodiments are directed to methods, systems, and circuits of generating compact descriptors for transmission over a communications network. A method according to one embodiment includes receiving an uncompressed descriptor, performing zero-thresholding on the uncompressed descriptor to generate a zero-threshold-delimited descriptor, quantizing the zero-threshold-delimited descriptor to generate a quantized descriptor, and coding the quantized descriptor to generate a compact descriptor for transmission over a communications network. The uncompressed and compact descriptors may be 3D descriptors, such as where the uncompressed descriptor is a SHOT descriptor. The operation of coding can be ZeroFlag coding, ExpGolomb coding, or Arithmetic coding, for example. | 07-03-2014 |
| 20140185390 | BUFFER FOR ORDERING OUT-OF-ORDER DATA, AND CORRESPONDING INTEGRATED CIRCUIT AND METHOD FOR MANAGING A BUFFER - A buffer for ordering out-of-order data includes a memory with a plurality of memory locations for temporarily storing data and a detection circuit configured for generating a control signal when the memory locations contain valid data. The detection circuit includes a first block configured for generating validity signals that identify the memory locations containing valid data and a search circuit configured for determining a search pointer as a function of the validity signals. In the case where each memory location contains valid data, the search pointer indicates the last memory location. In the case where at least one memory location is still free, the search pointer indicates the first memory location that is free. | 07-03-2014 |
| 20140184185 | ELECTRIC SYSTEM COMPRISING A LOAD DRIVING APPARATUS BY AUTO-RECOVERY MODE, AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE APPARATUS - A driver for an electric load includes a power device having a control terminal and an output terminal for an output current, and a control module. The control module is configured to drive the power device in an auto-recovery mode by switching between activation and deactivation in the occurrence of an overcurrent condition, wherein the output current reaches a threshold current. The control module is also configured to evaluate a first time interval between a time wherein the overcurrent condition occurs, and a first time, and generate a limit signal when the time interval is equal to a time threshold. The power device is driven in a switching-off condition at least as a function of the limit signal. | 07-03-2014 |
| 20140182390 | INTEGRATED ELECTRONIC DEVICE FOR MONITORING MECHANICAL STRESS WITHIN A SOLID STRUCTURE - The integrated electronic device is for detecting a local parameter related to a force observed in a given direction, within a solid structure. The device includes at least one sensor configured to detect the above-mentioned local parameter at least in the given direction through piezo-resistive effect. At least one damping element, integrated in the device, is arranged within a frame-shaped region that is disposed around the at least one sensor and belongs to a substantially planar region comprising a plane passing through the sensor and perpendicular to the given direction. Such at least one damping element is configured to damp forces acting in the planar region and substantially perpendicular to the given direction. | 07-03-2014 |
| 20140175541 | MANUFACTURING OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES IN A WAFER OF SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIAL HAVING TRENCHES WITH DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS - A method for integrating a set of electronic devices on a wafer ( | 06-26-2014 |
| 20140173542 | METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC DESIGN OF AN ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT, CORRESPONDING SYSTEM, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - A method for automatic design of an electronic circuit, includes: generating ( | 06-19-2014 |
| 20140173282 | METHOD TO ACCESS DATA IN AN ELECTRONIC APPARATUS - An access method includes providing a secure element which stores at least a user key for decrypting one of the encrypted partitions; establishing a temporary secure channel between the secure element and the electronic apparatus; and authenticating in the electronic apparatus a user which is associated to one of the encrypted partitions. The method also includes transmitting an identification of the user authenticated and transmitting the user key from the secure element to the electronic apparatus over the temporary secure channel. The electronic apparatus is programmed to decrypt the encrypted partition and the encrypted partition of the authenticated user is not accessible to the authenticated user or to any other authenticated users in the electronic apparatus, if the user key of the authenticated user is not transmitted to the electronic apparatus. | 06-19-2014 |
| 20140168843 | ARC FAULT DETECTION EQUIPMENT AND METHOD USING LOW FREQUENCY HARMONIC CURRENT ANALYSIS - An arc fault detection circuit includes a current sensing circuit coupled to a line conductor carrying a current. The current sensing circuit operates to sense current and output data indicative of the sensed current. A processing circuit implements a frequency transform algorithm to transform the output data to frequency data in a low frequency range and with a high spectral resolution where a minimum short time observation window is concerned. The processing circuit identifies an arc fault condition on the line conductor by identifying differences in said frequency data between at least two subsequent observation windows and identifying characteristics which exceed thresholds. | 06-19-2014 |
| 20140168516 | PROCESSING DIGITAL IMAGES TO BE PROJECTED ON A SCREEN - An embodiment relates to a method for converting a digital image from a first color space to a second color space. The first color space is associated with an electronic source device, and the second color space is associated with a projection apparatus of digital images on a screen and coupled to the source device. The method includes: performing a first conversion on a first triad of parameters associated to the first color space by a first conversion matrix to map such a first triad in a third triad of parameters; the third triad is representative of a color space independent from the first and the second color spaces; performing a second conversion on the third triad of parameters by a second conversion matrix to map such a third triad of parameters in a second triad of parameters representative of the second color space. An embodiment of the step of performing the second conversion includes a step of computing the coefficients of the second conversion matrix based on at least one first piece of information representative of a variable distance between the projection apparatus and the screen. | 06-19-2014 |
| 20140167193 | SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE WITH INTEGRATED MAGNETIC ELEMENT PROVIDED WITH A BARRIER STRUCTURE AGAINST METAL CONTAMINATION, AND MANUFACTURING - A semiconductor device including: a semiconductor body having a first side and a second side opposite to one another; a first barrier element, which extends over the first side of the semiconductor body and is made of a first material configured to act as barrier against metal ions, for example chosen from among titanium, tantalum, titanium alloys or compounds, tantalum alloy; a magnetic element, which extends over the first barrier layer and is made of a second material having magnetic properties, for example a ferromagnetic material; a second barrier element, which extends over the magnetic layer and is made of a third material configured to act as barrier against metal ions, for example chosen from among titanium, tantalum, titanium alloys or compounds, tantalum alloys or compounds. The first and second barrier elements form a top encapsulating structure and a bottom encapsulating structure for the magnetic element. | 06-19-2014 |
| 20140167060 | NORMALLY OFF POWER ELECTRONIC COMPONENT - An electronic power component including a normally on high-voltage transistor and a normally off low-voltage transistor. The normally on transistor and the normally off transistor are coupled in cascode configuration and are housed in a single package. The normally off transistor is of the bottom-source type. | 06-19-2014 |
| 20140166763 | SIM CARD ADAPTER - A SIM card adapter assembly is to adapt a SIM card to a SIM slot. The adapter assembly includes a SIM card plastic support including a first portion of a predetermined thickness. The SIM card is removably attached and a second portion has an increased thickness wherein at least one adapter is removably attached. | 06-19-2014 |
| 20140165722 | SENSOR DEVICE PROVIDED WITH A CIRCUIT FOR DETECTION OF SINGLE OR MULTIPLE EVENTS FOR GENERATING CORRESPONDING INTERRUPT SIGNALS - A sensor device for an electronic apparatus, is provided with: a sensing structure generating a first detection signal; and a dedicated integrated circuit, connected to the sensing structure, detecting, as a function of the first detection signal, a first event associated to the electronic apparatus and generating a first interrupt signal upon detection of the first event. The dedicated integrated circuit detects the first event as a function of a temporal evolution of the first detection signal, and in particular as a function of values assumed by the first detection signal within one or more successive time windows, and of a relation between these values. | 06-19-2014 |
| 20140161359 | METHOD FOR DETECTING A STRAIGHT LINE IN A DIGITAL IMAGE - An embodiment is a computer-implemented method for detecting a straight line in a digital image comprising a plurality of pixels comprising the steps: detecting an edge in the digital image, generating a first straight line which passes through a first pixel of the detected edge, generating a second straight line which passes through a second pixel of the detected edge, which is different from the first pixel, determining at least two intersections with a boundary of the digital image for each generated straight line, determining a set of two parameter values for each generated straight line based on the respective determined at least two intersections, wherein the set of two parameter values uniquely determines the respective generated straight line, and detecting the straight line in the digital image based on the determined sets of two parameter values. | 06-12-2014 |
| 20140159717 | MAGNETORESISTIVE SENSOR INTEGRATED IN A CHIP FOR DETECTING MAGNETIC FIELDS PERPENDICULAR TO THE CHIP AND MANUFACTURING PROCESS THEREOF - An integrated magnetoresistive sensor, formed in a chip including a substrate having a surface and an insulating region covering the surface of the substrate. A magnetoresistor, of a first ferromagnetic material, is formed in the insulating region and has a sensitivity plane parallel to the surface. A concentrator of a second ferromagnetic material is formed in the substrate and has at least one arm extending in a transverse direction to the sensitivity plane. The arm has one end in contact with the magnetoresistor. | 06-12-2014 |
| 20140145804 | MAGNETIC RELAY DEVICE MADE USING MEMS OR NEMS TECHNOLOGY - A magnetic relay device having a substrate of semiconductor material houses two through magnetic vias of electrically conductive ferromagnetic material. At least one coil is arranged underneath a first surface of the substrate in proximity of at least one between the first and second magnetic vias, and a contact structure, of ferromagnetic material, is arranged over a second surface of the substrate and is controlled by the magnetic field generated by the coil so as to switch between an open position, wherein the contact structure electrically disconnects the first and second magnetic vias, and a close position, wherein the contact structure electrically connects the first and second magnetic vias. | 05-29-2014 |
| 20140145751 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE FOR IMPLEMENTING DIGITAL FUNCTIONS THROUGH MOLECULAR FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS - An electronic device for implementing digital functions comprising a first and a second electrode regions, separated by an interposing region comprising a dielectric region, is described. The first and the second electrode regions comprise at least one first electrode and at least one second electrode, respectively, configured to generate in the interposing region an electric field depending on an electric potential difference applied thereto. In the interposing region, a molecular layer is comprised, which is composed of a plurality of molecules, each being capable of assuming one or more states, in a controllable manner, depending on a sensed electric field. The dielectric region has a spatially variable dielectric profile, to determine a respective spatially variable field profile of the sensed electric field at the molecular layer. | 05-29-2014 |
| 20140144230 | MICROELECTROMECHANICAL GYROSCOPE WITH IMPROVED START-UP PHASE, SYSTEM INCLUDING THE MICROELECTROMECHANICAL GYROSCOPE, AND METHOD FOR SPEEDING-UP THE START UP PHASE - A driving device of a driving mass of a gyroscope comprises a differential read amplifier to supply first signals indicating a rate of oscillation of the driving mass; a variable-gain amplifier to supply second signals to drive the driving mass based on said first signals; a voltage elevator providing a power supply signal to the variable-gain amplifier; a controller generating a first control signal to control a gain of the variable-gain amplifier; and a first comparator, coupled to the variable-gain amplifier, generating a second control signal based on a comparison of the first control signal with a threshold, the second control signal controlling at least one among: (i) the variable-gain amplifier in such a way that the gain is increased only during the start-up phase of the gyroscope, and (ii) the voltage elevator in such a way that the power supply signal is increased only during the start-up phase. | 05-29-2014 |
| 20140141603 | VERTICAL-CONDUCTION INTEGRATED ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING THEREOF - An embodiment of a vertical-conduction integrated electronic device formed in a body of semiconductor material which includes: a substrate made of a first semiconductor material and with a first type of conductivity, the first semiconductor material having a first bandgap; an epitaxial region made of the first semiconductor material and with the first type of conductivity, which overlies the substrate and defines a first surface; and a first epitaxial layer made of a second semiconductor material, which overlies the first surface and is in direct contact with the epitaxial region, the second semiconductor material having a second bandgap narrower than the first bandgap. The body moreover includes a deep region of a second type of conductivity, extending underneath the first surface and within the epitaxial region. | 05-22-2014 |
| 20140140354 | METHOD FOR REGULATING DATA TRANSMISSION OVER A COMMUNICATION CHANNEL, CORRESPONDING DEVICE AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - Transmission of data frames over a channel in a communications network takes place on a slotted time base. A method comprises an evaluation, by at at least one node of the network having a frame available for transmission, of whether the channel is available for transmission. If the the channel is available for transmission, the available frame is transmitted over the channel in a subsequent slot of the slotted time base. If the channel is not available for transmission, owing to a frame (having a certain temporal length) being transmitted over the channel at a certain time, the slotted time base of the at least one node is resynchronized as a function of the frame being transmitted. The resynchronization includes identifying, as a function of the certain temporal length, an interval of delay to evaluate again in at a furture time whether the channel is available for transmission. | 05-22-2014 |
| 20140139029 | DUAL INPUT SINGLE OUTPUT REGULATOR FOR AN INERTIAL SENSOR - A dual input single output (DISO) regulator, includes a comparator configured to receive a first and second power supply signal and to provide a first compared signal; a first switch configured to couple the first power supply source to an intermediate node, and a second switch configured to couple the second power supply source to the intermediate node; a control logic circuit, coupled to the first comparator, to the first switch, and to the second switch, and configured to receive the compared signal to control the first and the second switch in a first and second operating condition based on the compared signal. The intermediate node being biased by an intermediate power supply signal correlated to the first or second power supply signal. The DISO regulator includes a low-dropout regulator, configured to provide a regulated power supply signal based on the intermediate power supply signal. | 05-22-2014 |
| 20140138739 | INTEGRATED POWER DEVICE ON A SEMICONDUCTOR SUBSTRATE HAVING AN IMPROVED TRENCH GATE STRUCTURE - An embodiment of a method for manufacturing a power device being integrated on a semiconductor substrate comprising at least the steps of making, in the semiconductor substrate, at least a trench having sidewalls and a bottom, covering the sidewalls and the bottom of said at least one trench with a first insulating coating layer and making, inside said at least one trench, a conductive gate structure. An embodiment of the method provides the formation of the conductive gate structure comprising the steps of covering at least the sidewalls with a second conductive coating layer of a first conductive material; making a conductive central region of a second conductive material having a different resistivity than the first conductive material; and making a plurality of conductive bridges between said second conductive coating layer and said conductive central region. | 05-22-2014 |
| 20140134807 | IGBT TRANSISTOR WITH PROTECTION AGAINST PARASITIC COMPONENT ACTIVATION AND MANUFACTURING PROCESS THEREOF - An IGBT transistor includes a drift region, at least one body region housed in the drift region and having a first type of conductivity, and a conduction region, which crosses the body region in a direction perpendicular to a surface of the drift region and has the first type of conductivity and a lower resistance than the body region. The conduction region includes a plurality of implant regions, arranged at respective depths from the surface of the drift region. | 05-15-2014 |
| 20140133550 | METHOD OF ENCODING AND DECODING FLOWS OF DIGITAL VIDEO FRAMES, RELATED SYSTEMS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS - A first video frame and a second video frame in a flow of digital video frames are encoded by extracting for the frames in question respective sets of keypoints and descriptors, with each descriptor including a plurality of orientation histograms regarding a patch of pixels centred on the respective keypoint. Once a pair of linked descriptors has been identified, one for the first frame and one for the second frame, which have a minimum distance from among the distances between any one of the descriptors of the first frame and any one of the descriptors of the second frame, the differences of the histograms of the descriptors linked in said pair are calculated, and the descriptors linked in said pair are encoded as the set including one of the linked descriptors and the aforesaid histogram differences by subjecting the histogram differences to a thesholding setting at zero all the differences below a certain threshold, to quantization, and to an encoding of a run-length type. The run-length encoding is followed by a further encoding chosen from among a Huffman encoding, an arithmetical encoding, and a type encoding. | 05-15-2014 |
| 20140133310 | METHOD FOR EXTRACTING FEATURES FROM A FLOW OF DIGITAL VIDEO FRAMES, AND CORRESPONDING SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - In an embodiment, digital video frames in a flow are subjected to a method of extraction of features including the operations of: extracting from the video frames respective sequences of pairs of keypoints/descriptors limiting to a threshold value the number of pairs extracted for each frame; sending the sequences extracted from an extractor module to a server for processing with a bitrate value variable in time; receiving the aforesaid bitrate value variable in time at the extractor as target bitrate for extraction; and limiting the number of pairs extracted by the extractor to a threshold value variable in time as a function of the target bitrate. | 05-15-2014 |
| 20140133195 | CONTROL METHOD AND DEVICE FOR SWITCHING POWER SUPPLIES HAVING MORE THAN ONE CONTROL MODE - A control device for controlling a switching power supply adapted to convert an input voltage into an output voltage according to a switching rate of a switching element. The control device includes first control means for switching the switching element in a first working mode at a constant frequency and second control means for switching the switching element in a second working mode at a variable frequency, under a maximum frequency, in response to the detection of a predefined operative condition of the switching power supply. The control device further includes means for selecting the first working mode or the second working mode. | 05-15-2014 |
| 20140131819 | PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING A LID FOR AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE PACKAGE, AND LID FOR AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE PACKAGE - A process for manufacturing a packaged microelectromechanical device includes: forming a lid having a face and a cavity open on the face; coating the face of the lid and walls of the cavity with a metal layer containing copper; and coating the metal layer with a protective layer. | 05-15-2014 |
| 20140118585 | COLOR PROCESSING OF DIGITAL IMAGES - An embodiment relates to a method for color processing of an input image, the method including the steps of low-pass filtering of the input image to obtain a low-pass component, high-pass filtering of the input image to obtain a high-pass component, processing the input image for edge detection to obtain edginess parameters, and performing a color-space transformation of the input image based on the low-pass component, the high-pass component, and the edginess parameters. | 05-01-2014 |
| 20140118036 | STSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING BYPASS OF A VOLTAGE REGULATOR - A voltage regulator bypass circuit to control bypass of a voltage regulator of an integrated circuit device, the voltage regulator bypass circuit including a first voltage detector, a second voltage detector, and circuit. The first voltage detector to detect that a core circuitry voltage level is above a first threshold and to assert a first detect signal at an output in response to the detection. The second voltage detector to detect that an unregulated supply voltage is above a second threshold and to assert a second detect signal at an output in response to the detection. The circuit having a first input coupled to the output of the first voltage detector and a second input coupled to the output of the second voltage detector, the circuit to bypass the voltage regulator in response the output of the latch being cleared. | 05-01-2014 |
| 20140116136 | MICROELECTROMECHANICAL STRUCTURE WITH ENHANCED REJECTION OF ACCELERATION NOISE - An integrated MEMS structure includes a driving assembly anchored to a substrate and actuated with a driving movement. A pair of sensing masses suspended above the substrate and coupled to the driving assembly via elastic elements is fixed in the driving movement and performs a movement along a first direction of detection, in response to an external stress. A coupling assembly couples the pair of sensing masses mechanically to couple the vibration modes. The coupling assembly is formed by a rigid element, which connects the sensing masses and has a point of constraint in an intermediate position between the sensing masses, and elastic coupling elements for coupling the rigid element to the sensing masses to present a first stiffness to a movement in phase-opposition and a second stiffness, greater than the first, to a movement in phase, of the sensing masses along the direction of detection. | 05-01-2014 |
| 20140116135 | INTEGRATED MICROELECTROMECHANICAL GYROSCOPE WITH IMPROVED DRIVING STRUCTURE - An integrated MEMS gyroscope, is provided with: at least a first driving mass driven with a first driving movement along a first axis upon biasing of an assembly of driving electrodes, the first driving movement generating at least one sensing movement, in the presence of rotations of the integrated MEMS gyroscope; and at least a second driving mass driven with a second driving movement along a second axis, transverse to the first axis, the second driving movement generating at least a respective sensing movement, in the presence of rotations of the integrated MEMS gyroscope. The integrated MEMS gyroscope is moreover provided with a first elastic coupling element, which elastically couples the first driving mass and the second driving mass in such a way as to couple the first driving movement to the second driving movement with a given ratio of movement. | 05-01-2014 |
| 20140115200 | DEVICE AND METHOD FOR WRITING/READING A MEMORY REGISTER SHARED BY A PLURALITY OF PERIPHERALS - A device and method for writing/reading a piece of data in/from a memory register shared by a plurality of peripherals, each peripheral having a peripheral clock signal, when two or more of the plurality of peripherals need to write/read such piece of data at the same time, the digital device including a central unit having the memory register and a bank of SL modules in signal communication with the central unit, the bank of SL modules being designed to write/read the piece of data. The bank of SL modules comprises a plurality of writing/reading modules whose priority value ranges between maximum and minimum priority values, each module being connected to a respective peripheral, the central unit includes a multiplexer in signal communication on the one hand with the plurality of writing/reading modules, and on the other hand with the memory register, each module comprises an arbitration cell, such that the first module is identified by the maximum priority value (Prmax′) and the other N−1 modules are identified by decreasing priority values, the central unit operating at a predetermined main clock frequency to write/read the piece of data in the memory register. | 04-24-2014 |
| 20140112617 | INTEGRATED OPTOELECTRONIC DEVICE AND SYSTEM WITH WAVEGUIDE AND MANUFACTURING PROCESS THEREOF - An integrated electronic device, delimited by a first surface and by a second surface and including: a body made of semiconductor material, formed inside which is at least one optoelectronic component chosen between a detector and an emitter; and an optical path which is at least in part of a guided type and extends between the first surface and the second surface, the optical path traversing the body. The optoelectronic component is optically coupled, through the optical path, to a first portion of free space and a second portion of free space, which are arranged, respectively, above and underneath the first and second surfaces. | 04-24-2014 |
| 20140112080 | IDENTIFICATION OF A CONDITION OF A SECTOR OF MEMORY CELLS IN A NON-VOLATILE MEMORY - An embodiment solution for operating a non-volatile memory of a complementary type is proposed. The non-volatile memory includes a plurality of sectors of memory cells, each memory cell being adapted to take a programmed state or an erased state. Moreover, the memory cells are arranged in locations each formed by a direct memory cell and a complementary memory cell. Each sector of the non-volatile memory is in a non-written condition when the corresponding memory cells are in equal states and is in a written condition wherein each location thereof stores a first logic value or a second logic value when the memory cells of the location are in a first combination of different states or in a second combination of different states, respectively. In an embodiment, a corresponding method includes the following steps: selecting at least one of the sectors, determining an indication of the number of memory cells in the programmed state and an indication of the number of memory cells in the erased state of the selected sector, and identifying the condition of the selected sector according to a comparison between the indication of the number of memory cells in the programmed state and the indication of the number of memory cells in the erased state. | 04-24-2014 |
| 20140111086 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD FOR DRIVING THE LAMPS OF THE BLINKERS OF A VEHICLE - An electronic system for driving a lamp of a blinker of a vehicle may include a switch having a first input terminal configured to receive a battery voltage, a second input control terminal configured to receive a control signal for operating the switch, and an output terminal. The system may also include a change-over switch configured to connect, alternatively, the output terminal of the switch to the lamp and to a high impedance reference. The system may also include an electronic device connected to the switch and configured to detect a voltage drop between the first input terminal and the output terminal, and, based upon the voltage drop, generate the control signal to have a value to maintain the switch open for a time interval, and generate the control signal to have a second value to maintain the switch closed for another time interval. | 04-24-2014 |
| 20140105605 | DRIVER FOR MULTI-STAGE WAVE GUIDE MODULATOR AND METHOD - A modular hub driver architecture may include a multi-delay block configured to provide an enhanced delay match among N distinct stages of a distributed modulating electro-optical interface core. The electro-optical multi-core modulator driver may include an input impedance matching stage and a pre-conditioning circuit configured to generate a number M, an integer divisor of N, of delayed replicas of an electrical modulating signal. The electro-optical multi-core modulator may include an array of M launch buffers of the replica signals, and an array of M multi-delay blocks, each including delay circuit modules differently cascaded on distinct signal paths, and configured to receive, at respective inputs, the M replica signals and to output N/M differently delayed replicas of the input signals, each driving a correspondent output stage of one on the N electro-optical interface cores. | 04-17-2014 |
| 20140104800 | PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD WITH REDUCED EMISSION OF ELECTRO-MAGNETIC RADIATION - A printed circuit board including a first outer layer, a second outer layer and an integrated circuit mounted on the second outer layer. The integrated circuit has a single exposed pad electrically connected to a ground reference, a first supply pin electrically connected to a first power supply and a second supply pin electrically connected to a second power supply, wherein the first power supply is configured to generate a first supply current with frequency components higher than the frequency components of a second supply current generated by the second power supply. | 04-17-2014 |
| 20140104666 | ELECTRO-OPTICAL MODULATOR INTERFACE - A relatively high-speed, high-efficiency CMOS two branch driver core that may operate under relatively low supply voltage may include thin oxide CMOS transistors configured to generate rail-to-rail output swings larger than twice a supply voltage and without exceeding safe operating area limits. Each of the two branches may include two stacked CMOS inverter pairs configured to drive a respective load capacitance coupled between respective CMOS inverter outputs, in phase opposition to the other branch. A pre-driver circuit input with a differential modulating signal may output two synchronous differential voltage drive signals of a swing of half of the supply voltage and DC-shifted by half of the supply voltage with respect to each other and that may be applied to the respective CMOS inverter inputs of the two branches. | 04-17-2014 |
| 20140104002 | CIRCUIT AND METHOD FOR ADJUSTING THE ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY OF AN ENERGY-SCAVENGING SYSTEM - A differentiator generates a time derivative signal from a time-variable signal. A transconductance amplifier generates a biasing control signal as a function of the time derivative signal. A supply network functions to supply the differentiator and transconductance amplifier. The supply network is driven by the biasing control signal output from the transconductance amplifier. With this configuration, speed of operation of the differentiator and transconductance amplifier vary with the supply provided by the supply network, and the supply is modulated as a function of the received time-variable signal. | 04-17-2014 |
| 20140103986 | MUX-BASED DIGITAL DELAY INTERPOLATOR - A digital delay interpolator may include an array of multiplexers, each multiplexer configured to be input with first and second input voltages, one of the first and second input voltages being delayed in respect to the other, and receive a respective selection signal. The digital delay interpolator may include output lines respectively coupled to the array of multiplexers, and an output terminal configured to be coupled in common to the output lines. Each multiplexer may be configured to selectively output on the respective output line one of the first and the second input voltages based upon a logic value of the respective selection signal. | 04-17-2014 |
| 20140098617 | PACKAGE - A package includes a first die and a second die. An interface connects the first die and the second die. At least one of the first and second dies includes a memory. The interface is configured to transport both control signals and memory transactions. A multiplexing circuit multiplexes the control signals and the memory transactions onto the interface such that connections of the interface are shared by the control signals and the memory transactions. | 04-10-2014 |
| 20140098045 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TOUCH SHAPE RECOGNITION, RELATED SCREEN APPARATUS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - An embodiment of a method of recognizing finger detection data in a detection data map produced by a touch screen includes converting the data from the x, y, z space into a three-descriptor space including: a first coordinate representative of the number of intensity peaks in the map, a second coordinate representative of the number of nodes (i.e., pixels) absorbed under one or more of the intensity peaks. A third coordinate may be selected as the angular coefficient or slope of a piecewise-linear approximating function passing through points having the numbers of nodes absorbed under the intensity peaks ordered in decreasing order over said intensity peaks, which permits singling out finger data with respect to non-finger data over the whole of the touch screen. The third coordinate may be also selected as an adjacency value representative of the extent the intensity peaks are adjacent to one another, which permits singling out finger data produced over a portion of the touch screen with respect to non-finger data produced over another portion of the touch screen. | 04-10-2014 |
| 20140096606 | DETECTOR OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVES AND METHOD OF DETECTING GRAVITATIONAL WAVES - A semiconductor detector of gravitational waves of a first frequency may include an oscillator having a metal coated oscillating member over a metal coated semiconductor substrate to be subjected to a Casimir attraction force towards the semiconductor substrate. The oscillator may be configured to exert a force to counterbalance the Casimir attraction force causing the oscillating member oscillates with a main harmonic resonance frequency equal to the first frequency. A displacement sensor may be coupled to the substrate and oscillating member and configured to sense oscillations and to generate corresponding sense signals. A pass-band filter may be tuned to the main harmonic resonance frequency and configured to generate band-pass replica signals of the sense signals, and an airtight package may be configured to keep a vacuum between the oscillating member and the semiconductor substrate. An array of semiconductor detectors and a method of detecting gravitational waves are also disclosed. | 04-10-2014 |
| 20140093104 | CLASS-G AMPLIFIER AND AUDIO SYSTEM EMPLOYING THE AMPLIFIER - A Class-G amplifier including a first and second driving transistor configured to receive an input voltage; a first supplying terminal connected to the first driving transistor to supply a first supplying voltage. The amplifier also comprises: a second supplying terminal connected to the second driving transistor to supply a second supplying voltage in absolute value higher than said first voltage; a first power transistor connected to the first driving transistor to form a first Sziklai pair structured to be activated by a first input voltage lower in absolute value than the first supplying voltage; a second power transistor connected to the second driving transistor to form a second Sziklai pair structured to be activated by an input signal comprised between the first supplying voltage and the second supplying voltage. | 04-03-2014 |
| 20140088917 | STEP COUNTER DEVICE WITH ENERGY-SCAVENGING FUNCTIONALITY, AND STEP-COUNTING METHOD - A step-counter device detects and counts user steps. The device includes a transducer configured to generate an electrical transduction signal in response to user stepping. An energy-scavenging system is coupled to the transducer to generate a power supply voltage in response to the electrical transduction signal. A processing unit is powered by the power supply voltage. The processing unit is further configured to sense the electrical transduction signal and determine whether a user step has occurred and in response to that determination increment a step counter. | 03-27-2014 |
| 20140087552 | METHOD OF FORMING A CONDUCTIVE POLYMER MICROSTRUCTURE - The present disclosure relates to microstructure devices, in which a conductive pattern is formed on the basis of a conductive polymer material. In order to avoid the deposition and processing of the sacrificial materials and reduce a negative influence of the lithography process on sensitive conductive polymer materials a one-layer patterning sequence is proposed, in which a trench pattern is formed in a dielectric material that is subsequently filled with the conductive polymer material. | 03-27-2014 |
| 20140085260 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FINGER SENSING, RELATED SCREEN APPARATUS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - An embodiment of a method for processing finger-detection data produced by a touch screen includes: computing the area of the finger-data map and extracting the main axes from the finger-data map, computing the lengths and orientations of the main axes, determining from the main axes a major axis having a major-axis orientation, computing a geometrical center and a center of mass of the finger-data map, computing an eccentricity of the finger-data map as a function of the lengths of the main axes outputting the major-axis orientation as indicative of the finger-orientation direction in the plane of the screen, outputting the mutual position of the geometrical center and the center of mass of the finger-data map as indicative of finger-pointing direction along the finger-orientation direction in the plane of the screen, and outputting a combination of the eccentricity and the area of the finger data map as indicative of finger orientation with respect to the plane of the screen. | 03-27-2014 |
| 20140084909 | BLOCK MADE OF A BUILDING MATERIAL - A building structure includes a block of building material and a magnetic circuit buried in the block of building material. The structure also includes a plurality of sensing devices buried in the block of building material. Each sensing device may include a contactless power supplying circuit magnetically coupled with the magnetic circuit to generate a supply voltage when the magnetic circuit is subject to a variable magnetic field. | 03-27-2014 |
| 20140084519 | METHODS AND A MOLD ASSEMBLY FOR FABRICATING POLYMER STRUCTURES BY IMPRINT TECHNIQUES - The present disclosure relates to mold components and imprint lithography techniques applied on the basis of organic mold materials in order to form polymer microstructure elements. It has been recognized that adapting surface characteristics of at least one mold component may significantly enhance performance of the lithography process, in particular with respect to suppressing residual polymer material, which in conventional strategies may have to be removed on the basis of an additional etch process. | 03-27-2014 |
| 20140083206 | PLANAR ELECTRIC BOARD WITH PLIABLE WINGS AND SYSTEM FOR SENSING COMPONENTS ALONG THREE COORDINATE AXIS OF INNER FORCES IN A BLOCK MADE OF A BUILDING MATERIAL - A planar electric circuit board may include a planar support of a foldable material defining a base surface and wings coupled to the base surface along respective folding lines so that the wings, when folded along the folding lines, are erected with respect to the base surface and remain in that position. An auxiliary circuit is on the planar support and may include pairs of capacitive coupling plates defined on the wings and on the base surface, and electric communication lines coupled to corresponding ones of the pairs of capacitive coupling plates. | 03-27-2014 |
| 20140070834 | PROBE CARD FOR TESTING INTEGRATED CIRCUITS - An embodiment of a probe card adapted for testing at least one integrated circuit integrated on a corresponding at least one die of a semiconductor material wafer, the probe card including a board adapted for the coupling to a tester apparatus, and a plurality of probes coupled to the said board, wherein the probe card comprises a plurality of replaceable elementary units, each one comprising at least one of said probes for contacting externally-accessible terminals of an integrated circuit under test, the plurality of replaceable elementary units being arranged so as to correspond to an arrangement of at least one die on the semiconductor material wafer containing integrated circuits to be tested. | 03-13-2014 |
| 20140065296 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING LEAD FRAMES - An embodiment of a method and an apparatus for manufacturing lead frames are described. For example, a coating layer is formed on one or more predefined portions of the surface of the substrate of the lead frame by delimiting the predefined portions by means of screen printing. The employment of screen printing may allow obtaining large amounts of lead frames with excellent electronic and structural properties in a quick and cost-effective way. | 03-06-2014 |
| 20140063473 | STABILIZED PICO-PROJECTOR DEVICE AND RELATED IMAGE STABILIZATION METHOD - A pico-projector device includes a light source operable to generate a light beam as a function of an image to be generated, a mirror mechanism operable to direct the light beam towards a displaying surface, and a driving circuit that supplies driving signals for controlling movement of the mirror mechanism. The driving circuit includes a compensation stage that receives angular velocity signals from a gyroscopic sensor coupled to the pico-projector device and generates the driving signals as a function of the angular velocity signals, thereby stabilizing the image projected on the displaying surface with respect to undesired movements of the pico-projector device. | 03-06-2014 |
| 20140062506 | MEMS DEVICE INCLUDING A MOBILE ELEMENT AND A RESISTIVE SENSOR, AND METHOD FOR GENERATING A SIGNAL INDICATING THE POSITION OF THE MOBILE ELEMENT - A MEMS device includes a supporting body, a first deformable element and a second deformable element, and a mobile element set between the first and second deformable elements and rotatable with respect to the fixed supporting body. A generator causes a current to flow through at least one of the first and second deformable elements, which function as resistors, so as to generate an electrical position signal proportional to deformation of the first and second deformable elements and indicative of angular position of the mobile element. The electrical signal is processed to determine mobile element angular position. A drive signal is generated in response to the electrical signal for the purpose of driving oscillation of the mobile element. | 03-06-2014 |
| 20140061892 | PACKAGED DEVICE EXPOSED TO ENVIRONMENTAL AIR AND LIQUIDS AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF - A packaged device, wherein at least one sensitive portion of a chip is enclosed in a chamber formed by a package. The package has an air-permeable area having a plurality of holes and a liquid-repellent structure so as to enable passage of air between an external environment and the chamber and block the passage of liquids. | 03-06-2014 |
| 20140061502 | SPECIMEN HOLDER FOR HOLDING A SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE DURING A SAMPLE PREPARATION PROCEDURE CARRIED OUT USING FIRST AND SECOND SAMPLE PREPARATION APPARATUSES - A specimen holder is configured to hold, during a sample preparation procedure carried out using first and second sample preparation apparatuses, a semiconductor device to be analyzed using an electron microscope. The specimen holder includes a holding portion having a support configured to support the semiconductor device; and a supporting portion configured to releasable support the holding portion. The supporting portion includes an engaging element configured to couple the specimen holder into the first and second sample preparation apparatuses during the sample preparation procedure, and a guide configured to enable the holding portion to slide within the guide and vary a position of the holding portion with respect to the supporting portion. | 03-06-2014 |
| 20140056040 | POWER SUPPLY APPARATUS FOR AN ELECTRICAL APPLIANCE - A power supply apparatus includes a power supply circuit and a power-on circuit. The power-on circuit detects a remotely transmitted control signal and causes a transition of the power supply circuit to a turned on state. The power-on circuit includes a transducer configured to provide a power-on signal in response to the remote control signal. The transducer triggers transition to the turned on state through a switch driven by the power-on signal output from the transducer and arranged to supply a power supply circuit enable signal. A DC blocking capacitor is connected between an output of the transducer and a control terminal of the switch. | 02-27-2014 |
| 20140055188 | TRANSMISSION CHANNEL FOR ULTRASOUND APPLICATIONS - A transmission channel configured to transmit high-voltage pulses and to receive echos of the high-voltage pulses includes a high voltage buffer, a voltage clamp and a switch. The voltage clamp may include clamping transistors and switching off transistors coupled together in series with body diodes in anti-series. The transmission channel may include a reset circuit configured to bias the transmission channel between pulses. The switch may include a bootstrap circuit. | 02-27-2014 |
| 20140043180 | ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERSION APPARATUS WITH A REDUCED NUMBER OF ADCs - An analog to digital conversion includes a multiplexor circuit for receiving analog input signals and, responsive to a select input, an analog to digital converter circuit to convert a selected analog signal into a digital signal, a conversion starting device to send a conversion start signal on the basis of a trigger event, the conversion starting device being responsive to a select input, a sequencer to control the analog to digital converter circuitry to execute one sequence conversion on the basis of one conversion sequence instruction, and a FIFO register block to receive conversion sequence instructions and being able to queue each new received conversion sequence instruction if an actual conversion sequence is in progress and to control the sequencer to execute a new sequence conversion instruction after the conversion sequence is executed. | 02-13-2014 |
| 20140038335 | INTEGRATED ACOUSTIC TRANSDUCER IN MEMS TECHNOLOGY, AND MANUFACTURING PROCESS THEREOF - A MEMS acoustic transducer, for example, a microphone, includes a substrate provided with a cavity, a supporting structure, fixed to the substrate, a membrane having a perimetral edge and a centroid, suspended above the cavity and fixed to the substrate the membrane configured to oscillate via the supporting structure. The supporting structure includes a plurality of anchorage elements fixed to the membrane, and each anchorage element is coupled to a respective portion of the membrane between the centroid and the perimetral edge of the membrane. | 02-06-2014 |
| 20140038193 | MICROFLUIDIC PCR DEVICE - A microfluidic device ( | 02-06-2014 |
| 20140036620 | 4D DATA ULTRASOUND IMAGING SYSTEM AND CORRESPONDING CONTROL PROCESS - An embodiment of a 4D data ultrasound imaging system includes a matrix of transducer elements suitable for transmitting and for receiving ultrasound signals, said transducer elements being divided into sub-matrixes suitable for receiving in a delayed way a same acoustic signal, a plurality of reception channels with one of said reception channels being associated with one of said transducer elements, a beamformer device including a plurality of storage cells arranged in re-phasing matrixes, each re-phasing matrix being associated with a corresponding sub-matrix with each row associated with one of said transducer elements, said storage cells including an input storage stage that is selectively associated with a row and a reading output stage that is selectively associated with a buffer; each storage cell that belongs to a same column has the input stage that is dynamically activated in sequential times with respect to another storage cell of the same column for storing the same delayed acoustic signal, said storage cells that belong to the same column have the output stage that is simultaneously activated. | 02-06-2014 |
| 20140036564 | NON-VOLATILE MEMORY DEVICE WITH CLUSTERED MEMORY CELLS - An embodiment of a non-volatile memory device includes: a memory array, having a plurality of non-volatile logic memory cells arranged in at least one logic row, the logic row including a first row and a second row sharing a common control line; and a plurality of bit lines. Each logic memory cell has a direct memory cell, for storing a logic value, and a complementary memory cell, for storing a second logic value, which is complementary to the first logic value in the corresponding direct memory cell. The direct memory cell and the complementary memory cell of each logic memory cell are coupled to respective separate bit lines and are placed one in the first row and the other in the second row of the respective logic row. | 02-06-2014 |
| 20140035159 | MULTILEVEL INTERCONNECT STRUCTURES AND METHODS OF FABRICATING SAME - A multilevel interconnect structure for a semiconductor device includes an intermetal dielectric layer with funnel-shaped connecting vias. The funnel-shaped connecting vias are provided in connection with systems exhibiting submicron spacings. The architecture of the multilevel interconnect structure provides a low resistance connecting via. | 02-06-2014 |
| 20140029860 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR THE TREATMENT OF STEREOSCOPIC IMAGES, CORRESPONDING COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS, AND STORAGE CARRIER - In an embodiment, a first individual image and a second individual image constituting an encoded stereoscopic image, for example in JPEG format with respective levels of encoding quality and united in a multiple-image file, for example of the Multiple-Picture Object (MPO) type. The second level of encoding quality is lower than the first level of encoding quality. During decoding, the first individual image encoded with a first level of encoding quality and the second individual image encoded with a second level of encoding quality lower than the first level of encoding quality are extracted from the multiple-image file, then using information of the first extracted individual image for enhancing the second extracted individual image. | 01-30-2014 |
| 20140029316 | METHOD AND CIRCUIT FOR CONTROLLING A SWITCHING REGULATOR - A method for controlling a switching regulator includes defining a waiting time during which a trigger signal corresponding to a recirculation signal of the switching regulator is ignored holding a control switch in an open condition, and detecting a number of local valleys of the recirculation signal during the waiting time. In particular, defining the waiting time is performed for each switching cycle by adding a first value, which is determined on the basis of a load on the regulator, to a second variable value, which is proportional to the number valleys detected during the waiting time of the preceding switching cycle. | 01-30-2014 |
| 20140023198 | METHOD AND CIRCUIT FOR TESTING AN AUDIO HIGH-FREQUENCY LOUDSPEAKER BEING PART OF A LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM - The present invention relates to a method and a circuit for testing a tweeter, said tweeter being part of a loudspeaker system, wherein the method includes the steps of: applying a high-frequency voltage signal to one terminal of said tweeter, said high-frequency voltage signal being generated by first electronic means; applying a constant voltage signal to the other terminal of said tweeter, said constant voltage signal being generated by second electronic means; measuring a current I | 01-23-2014 |
| 20140021564 | MICROELECTROMECHANICAL GYROSCOPE WITH ENHANCED REJECTION OF ACCELERATION NOISES - An integrated microelectromechanical structure is provided with a driving mass, anchored to a substrate via elastic anchorage elements and designed to be actuated in a plane with a driving movement; and a first sensing mass and a second sensing mass, suspended within, and coupled to, the driving mass via respective elastic supporting elements so as to be fixed with respect thereto in said driving movement and to perform a respective detection movement in response to an angular velocity. In particular, the first and the second sensing masses are connected together via elastic coupling elements, configured to couple their modes of vibration. | 01-23-2014 |
| 20140019679 | NOVEL DATA ACCESSING METHOD TO BOOST PERFORMANCE OF FIR OPERATION ON BALANCED THROUGHPUT DATA-PATH ARCHITECTURE - An apparatus and method are disclosed to implement digital signal processing operations involving multiply-accumulate (MAC) operations, by using a modified balanced data structure and accessing architecture. This architecture maintains a data-path connecting one address generation unit, one register file and one MAC execution unit. The register file has a hierarchical grouping organization of individual registers, which reduces bubble cycles caused by memory misalignments. This architecture uses parallel execution and can achieve two or more MAC operations per cycle. | 01-16-2014 |
| 20140015071 | ENCAPSULATED MICRO-ELECTRO-MECHANICAL DEVICE, IN PARTICULAR A MEMS ACOUSTIC TRANSDUCER - An encapsulated micro-electro-mechanical device, wherein a MEMS chip is encapsulated by a package formed by a first, a second, and a third substrates that are bonded together. The first substrate has a main surface bearing the MEMS chip, the second substrate is bonded to the first substrate and defines a chamber surrounding the MEMS chip, and the third substrate is bonded to the second substrate and upwardly closes the chamber. A grid or mesh structure of electrically conductive material is formed in or on the third substrate and overlies the MEMS chip; the second substrate has a conductive connection structure coating the walls of the chamber, and the first substrate incorporates an electrically conductive region, which forms, together with the conductive layer and the grid or mesh structure, a Faraday cage. | 01-16-2014 |
| 20130342376 | ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERSION LOOP FOR PSI5 AND WSS SYSTEMS - An analog-to-digital conversion loop adapted to generate a digital output signal corresponding to a low-pass filtered replica of an analog input signal, including an analog adder configured to receive the input analog signal and an analog feedback signal, adapted to generate an analog error signal corresponding to the difference between the analog input signal and the analog feedback signal; an analog-to-digital converter having a nonlinear input-output conversion characteristic defining a larger quantization step the more the input to be converted differs from a null value, configured to receive the analog error signal and to generate a corresponding digital error signal a digital integrator configured to receive the digital error signal, configured to generate the digital output signal corresponding to the time integration of the digital error signal; a digital-to-analog converter, configured to receive the digital output signal and to generate the analog feedback signal as analog replica of the digital output signal. | 12-26-2013 |
| 20130342186 | INTEGRATED ELECTRONIC DEVICE FOR MONITORING PARAMETERS WITHIN A SOLID STRUCTURE AND MONITORING SYSTEM USING SUCH A DEVICE | 12-26-2013 |
| 20130336590 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING A VISUAL STORY BOARD IN REAL TIME - An embodiment includes a method and an apparatus for the generation of a visual story board in real time in an image-capturing device including a photo sensor and a buffer, wherein the method includes the consecutively performed steps: starting the recording of a video, receiving information on an image frame of the video, comparing the information on the received image frame with information on at least one of a plurality of image frames wherein the information on the plurality of image frames has previously been stored in the buffer, storing the information on the received image frame in the buffer depending on the result of the comparison, and finishing the recording of the video. | 12-19-2013 |
| 20130335121 | ELECTRONIC SWITCH FOR LOW-VOLTAGE AND HIGH SWITCHING SPEED APPLICATIONS - An electronic switch may include transfer transistor having a first conduction terminal for receiving an input signal, a second conduction terminal, and a control terminal. The transfer transistor may enable/disable a transfer of the input signal from the first conduction terminal to the second conduction terminal according to a control signal. The control signal may take a first value and a second value different from the first value, a difference between the first value and the second value defining, in absolute value, an operative value of the control signal. The electronic switch may further comprise a driving circuit for receiving the input signal and the control signal, and for providing a driving signal equal to the sum between the input signal and the operative value of the control signal to the control terminal of the transfer transistor. | 12-19-2013 |
| 20130321071 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING BYPASS OF A VOLTAGE REGULATOR - A voltage regulator bypass circuit to control bypass of a voltage regulator of an integrated circuit device, the voltage regulator bypass circuit including a first voltage detector, a second voltage detector, and circuit. The first voltage detector to detect that a core circuitry voltage level is above a first threshold and to assert a first detect signal at an output in response to the detection. The second voltage detector to detect that an unregulated supply voltage is above a second threshold and to assert a second detect signal at an output in response to the detection. The circuit having a first input coupled to the output of the first voltage detector and a second input coupled to the output of the second voltage detector, the circuit to bypass the voltage regulator in response the output of the latch being cleared. | 12-05-2013 |
| 20130321068 | CIRCUIT FOR GENERATION OF AN ELECTRIC CURRENT WITH A CONFIGURABLE VALUE - A current-generator circuit is for generation of an output current of a value that is configurable as a function of a configuration signal. The circuit may have a first reference resistor element traversed by an intermediate current, the value of which is a function of a reference current, for supplying a first reference voltage. The circuit may also include a resistive divider stage receiving the configuration signal and supplying a second reference voltage as a function of the first reference voltage and of the configuration signal. A second reference resistor element supplies, as a function of the second reference voltage (V | 12-05-2013 |
| 20130320957 | DC-DC CONVERTER AND OPERATING METHOD THEREOF - A DC-DC converter includes an interface to receive data having voltage values. A first circuit carries out a voltage transition from a previously received voltage value to a received voltage value (VSEL). A second circuit activates or inactivates the first circuit in response to an activation signal or a stop signal provided by the interface. A third circuit configures the second circuit so that, when new data including a new voltage value is received during a voltage transition, the second circuit interprets the stop signal as an activation signal for the first circuit to carry out a new voltage transition. The setting circuit sets at least one parameter needed by the first circuit to carry out the new voltage transition in response to the new data and before the end of the new voltage transition. | 12-05-2013 |
| 20130309803 | RADIATION SENSOR WITH PHOTODIODES BEING INTEGRATED ON A SEMICONDUCTOR SUBSTRATE AND CORRESPONDING INTEGRATION PROCESS - An embodiment relates to a sensor integrated on a semiconductor substrate and comprising at least one first and second photodiode including at least one first and one second p-n junction made in such a semiconductor substrate as well as at least one first and one second antireflection coating made on top of such a first and second photodiode. At least one antireflection coating of such a first and second photodiode comprises at least one first and one second different antireflection layer to make a double layer antireflection coating suitable for obtaining for the corresponding photodiode a responsivity peak at a predetermined wavelength of an optical signal incident on the sensor. An embodiment also refers to an integration process of such a sensor, as well as to an ambient light sensor made with such a sensor. | 11-21-2013 |
