Patent application number | Description | Published |
20130080677 | Virtual General Purpose Input/Output for a Microcontroller - A microcontroller includes a general purpose input/output (GPIO) port having a plurality of bits coupled to a plurality of external pins; a first set of registers for providing at least one of first control and data input/output functionality of the GPIO port; a second set of registers for providing at least one of second control and data input/output functionality of the GPIO port; and a multiplexer and associated select register for controlling the multiplexer to control said GPIO port through either said first or second register set. | 03-28-2013 |
20130088238 | Differential Current Measurements to Determine ION Current in the Presence of Leakage Current - An ion chamber provides a current representative of its characteristics as affected by external conditions, e.g., clean air or smoke. A direct current (DC) voltage is applied to the ion chamber at a first polarity and the resulting current through the ion chamber and parasitic leakage current is measured at the first polarity, then the DC voltage is applied to the ion chamber at a second polarity opposite the first polarity, and the resulting current through the ion chamber and parasitic leakage current is measured at the second polarity. Since substantially no current flows through the ion chamber at the second polarity, the common mode parasitic leakage current contribution may be removed from the total current measurement by subtracting the current measured at the second polarity from the current measured at the first polarity, resulting in just the current through the ion chamber. | 04-11-2013 |
20130088242 | Microcontroller with Sequencer Driven Analog-to-Digital Converter - An automated sequencer for a microcontroller is provided which makes a CVD conversion process a hardware function. The sequencer controls the charging/discharging of the sensor and ADC sample-and-hold capacitances, as well as the voltage division process. It also initiates the ADC conversion, with an optional second conversion for greater resolution, or a differential conversion | 04-11-2013 |
20130088246 | Microcontroller with Optimized ADC Controller - An analog-to-digital (ADC) controller is used in combination with a digital processor of a microcontroller to control the operation of capacitance measurements using the capacitive voltage division (CVD) method. The ADC controller handles the CVD measurement process instead of the digital processor having to run additional program steps for controlling charging and discharging of a capacitive touch sensor and sample and hold capacitor, then coupling these two capacitors together, and measuring the resulting voltage charge thereon in determining the capacitance thereof. The ADC controller may be programmable and its programmable parameters stored in registers. | 04-11-2013 |
20130088372 | Measuring Capacitance of a Capacitive Sensor with a Microcontroller Having Digital Outputs for Driving a Guard Ring - A guard ring is provided around each capacitive sensor plate and charged to substantially the same voltage as a voltage on the capacitive sensor plate. The guard ring reduces parasitic capacitances of the capacitive sensor plate caused by differences in voltage potentials between the capacitive sensor plate, and adjacent circuit conductors, ground planes and power planes. Two digital outputs and associated voltage divider resistors are used to drive the guard ring voltage to substantially the same voltage as the voltage on the capacitive sensor plate. | 04-11-2013 |
20130088377 | Microcontroller ADC with a Variable Sample & Hold Capacitor - An ADC module includes an analog to digital converter coupled with an analog bus, wherein the an analog to digital converter comprises a main sample and hold capacitor; and a plurality of additional sample and hold capacitances which can be programmably coupled in parallel with said main sample and hold capacitance. | 04-11-2013 |
20130119875 | Method and System to Dynamically Position a Switch Mode Power Supply Output Voltage - A switch mode power supply (SMPS) converter is periodically run backwards by using a synchronous switch instead of the normally used commutating diode. By running the SMPS converter backwards the SMPS output capacitor can be discharged very quickly to provide a fast turn off of (no current through) the LED's, thereby solving the color shift problem. This enables positioning the output voltage of the SMPS up or down by actively charging or discharging the bulk output capacitor. Having the capability of actively charging or discharging the bulk output capacitor allows generation of a current source comprising substantially square, e.g., substantially full current when on and substantially no current when off, current pulses that are preferable for driving LED lighting applications. | 05-16-2013 |
20130120032 | Analog Front End Device with Two-Wire Interface - An analog front end (AFE) device has at least one programmable analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a serial interface switchable to operate in a bidirectional serial interface mode and in a unidirectional two wire serial interface mode, wherein the unidirectional two wire serial interface mode only uses a clock input and a data output signal line, wherein the ADC operates in the unidirectional two wire serial interface mode synchronous with a clock supplied to the clock input. | 05-16-2013 |
20130120143 | Automatic Audible Alarm Origination Locate - A plurality of hazard alarm devices are in spatially diverse locations and coupled together with an input-output bus. An interconnect protocol enables non-originating alarm devices to synchronize their audible alert tone pulses with audible alert tone pulses from an originating alarm device in a local hazard alarm condition. Hence, all audible alert tone pulses start sounding substantially together with allowances for signal contention and arbitration between the spatially diverse alarm devices. The originating alarm device continuously sounds its pattern of audible alert tone pulse groups without interruption, while the non-originating alarm devices periodically pause sounding a group of their audible alert tone pulses. The originating alarm device may be found by listening for the alarm device that is continuously sounding audible alert tone pulse groups without pause. | 05-16-2013 |
20130121098 | Serial Memory with Fast Read with Look-Ahead - A serial memory may have memory arranged in a plurality of memory blocks, a serial interface for receiving a read instruction and associated memory address; and a controller configured to only store a plurality of most significant bits from each memory block which are accessed in parallel before an entire address has been received through the serial interface. The controller is further configured to stream out one of the plurality of most significant bits upon full reception of the memory address while retrieving the remaining bits from memory using the entire address and stream out the remaining bits after the most significant bits have been streamed out. | 05-16-2013 |
20130121372 | HIGH RESOLUTION TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT - Temperature is determined by measuring the time it takes to charge a capacitor with a resistive temperature sensor. A clock, time counter, a voltage comparator and voltage reference are used in determining a course time measurement. The time measurement resolution is enhanced with the addition of a constant current source charging another timing capacitor within a single clock pulse time to provide a fine time measurement. | 05-16-2013 |
20130126325 | PHYSICAL FORCE CAPACITIVE TOUCH SENSORS - A physical force capacitive touch sensor comprises a capacitive sensor element on a substrate, a physically deformable electrically insulating spacer over the capacitive sensor element and a conductive deformable plane over the physically deformable electrically insulating spacer. A protective deformable fascia may be placed over the conductive deformable plane to provide an environmental seal for physical and weather protection, but is not essential to operation of the capacitive touch sensor. Back lighting is accomplished through a light transmissive layer(s) in the capacitive touch sensor. When the conductive deformable plane is displaced toward the capacitive touch sensor element, the capacitance value of the capacitive touch sensor element changes and that change may be detected and used as an actuation signal. | 05-23-2013 |
20130154017 | Self-Aligned Gate Structure for Field Effect Transistor - A field effect transistor has a substrate with an epitaxial layer, base regions extending from a top of the epitaxial layer into the epitaxial layer, an insulation region having side walls and extending between two base regions on top of the substrate; and a polysilicon gate structure covering the insulation region including the side walls, wherein effective gates are formed by a portion of the polysilicon covering side walls above the base region. | 06-20-2013 |
20130154657 | Method and Apparatus for Detecting Smoke in an ION Chamber - A smoke detection sensor ion chamber has a capacitance and a change in the permittivity of that capacitance dielectric (ionized air in the chamber) may be used to detect the presence of smoke therein. Smoke from typical fires is mainly composed of unburned carbon that has diffused in the surrounding air and rises with the heat of the fire. The permittivity of the carbon particles is about 10 to 15 times the permittivity of clean air. The addition of the carbon particles into the air in the ion chamber changes in the permittivity thereof that is large enough to measure by measuring a change in capacitance of the ion chamber. | 06-20-2013 |
20130154659 | Method and Apparatus for Detecting Smoke in an ION Chamber - A smoke detection sensor ion chamber has a leakage current that is dependent upon the permittivity of the ionized gas (air) in the chamber. Smoke from typical fires is mainly composed of unburned carbon that has diffused in the surrounding air and rises with the heat of the fire. The permittivity of the carbon particles is about 10 to 15 times the permittivity of clean air. The addition of the carbon particles into the air in the ion chamber changes the permittivity thereof that is large enough to detect by measuring a change in the leakage current of the ion chamber. | 06-20-2013 |
20130154670 | Method and Apparatus for Detecting Smoke in an ION Chamber - A smoke detection sensor ion chamber has a capacitance and a change in the permittivity of that capacitance dielectric (ionized air in the chamber) may be used to detect the presence of smoke therein. Smoke from typical fires is mainly composed of unburned carbon that has diffused in the surrounding air and rises with the heat of the fire. The permittivity of the carbon particles is about 10 to 15 times the permittivity of clean air. The addition of the carbon particles into the air in the ion chamber changes in the permittivity thereof that is large enough to measure by measuring a change in capacitance of the ion chamber. | 06-20-2013 |
20130155010 | Capacitive Proximity Based Gesture Input System - A plurality of capacitive proximity sensors on a substantially horizontal plane and in combination with a microcontroller are used to detect user gestures for Page Up/Down, Zoom In/Out, Move Up/Down/Right/Left, Rotation, etc., commands to a video display. The microcontroller is adapted to interpret the capacitive changes of the plurality of capacitive proximity sensors caused by the user gestures, and generate control signals based upon these gestures to control the visual content of the video display. | 06-20-2013 |
20130157564 | Capacitive/Inductive Proximity Detection for Wi-Fi Protection - A combination of capacitive, mutual capacitive, and inductive proximity and touch sensing is used to detect the presence and nature of nearby objects to a wireless device. When the proximity of metal or a user is sensed the output power of a Wi-Fi module in the device is reduced so as to prevent harm to the user and/or the Wi-Fi transmitter amplifier circuits. Inductive sensors located at the four corners of the wireless device are used to detect metal, and capacitive sensors are used to detect a capacitance change or shift due to the presence of a user's hand, body or metal. In addition, the capacitive sensors may be located at the four corners of the device and can measure changes in the mutual capacitance coupling between these capacitive sensors. | 06-20-2013 |
20130162269 | Current Sensing with Internal ADC Capacitor - External conditions, e.g., smoke, temperature, humidity, humidity, pressure, flow rate, etc., affects a sensor's characteristics, wherein the sensor provides a current output representative of its characteristics as affected by the external conditions. The current output of the sensor is coupled to a sample and hold capacitor for a precision time period thereby charging the sample and hold capacitor to a voltage proportional to current provided by the sensor over the precision time period. The voltage on the sample and hold capacitor is converted to a digital representation and a determination is made whether the external condition represents an alarm situation, e.g., smoke detected from a fire. | 06-27-2013 |
20130176496 | MONITOR CHAINING AND DOCKING MECHANISM - A circuit that supports multiple monitors, docking functions, and protected content via one cable. The circuit includes a receiver that receives multiple video streams, each including respective video data, a mux/demux, coupled to the receiver, that determines which video stream to display on a monitor, a display interface coupled to the first mux/demux, wherein the display interface is configured to generate output signals based on the video data of the determined video stream to be displayed on the first monitor, a transmitter coupled to the mux/demux, and a transmit physical interface (TPI) coupled to the transmitter. The mux/demux sends at least a remainder of the video streams to the transmitter, which sends them to the TPI, which transmits them as output, useable as input to further instances of the circuit. | 07-11-2013 |
20130195124 | TIMEBASE PERIPHERAL - A microcontroller has a timebase driven by a clock signal, wherein the timebase has a reset input and an output coupled with a comparator. The comparator is further coupled with a register and is operable to generate a synchronization output signal if the timebase matches the register value. The microcontroller further has a first multiplexer receiving the synchronization output signal from the comparator and further receiving at least one event signal generated by a unit other than the timebase, wherein the first multiplexer is operable to select either the synchronization output signal or the at least one event signal as a timebase synchronization output signal. | 08-01-2013 |
20130198500 | PERIPHERAL SPECIAL FUNCTION REGISTER WITH SOFT-RESET DISABLE - A microcontroller has a plurality of peripherals, and at least one control bit, wherein the control bit controls a reset of at least one peripheral such that in a first mode any type of reset resets the at least one peripheral of said plurality of peripherals and in a second mode only a power supply reset resets the at least one peripheral. | 08-01-2013 |