InvenSense Patent Applications

PIEZOELECTRIC MICROMACHINED TRANSDUCER AND DEVICE

Granted: February 22, 2024
Application Number: 20240057972
An ultrasonic transducer device comprises a piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT), a transmitter with first and second differential outputs, and a controller. The PMUT includes a membrane layer. A bottom electrode layer, comprising a first bottom electrode and a second bottom electrode, is disposed above the membrane layer. The piezoelectric layer is disposed above the bottom electrode layer. The top electrode layer is disposed above the piezoelectric layer and…

ULTRASONIC DEVICE COEXISTENCE

Granted: January 4, 2024
Application Number: 20240004061
A device comprises a processor communicatively coupled with an ultrasonic sensor which is configured to repeatedly emit ultrasonic pulses during transmit periods which are interspersed with receive periods. Returned ultrasonic signals corresponding to the emitted ultrasonic pulses are received by the ultrasonic sensor during the receive periods. The processor is configured to direct the ultrasonic sensor to listen, during a listening window, for a potentially interfering ultrasonic…

COEXISTENCE OF ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCERS IN AN OPERATING ENVIRONMENT

Granted: December 28, 2023
Application Number: 20230417907
A device comprises a processor coupled with an ultrasonic transducer which is configured to repeatedly emit ultrasonic pulses during transmit periods which are interspersed with listening windows. Each sequential pair of the transmit periods is separated by a single listening window of the listening windows. During a fixed portion of a listening window of the listening windows the ultrasonic transducer is configured to receive returned signals corresponding to an emitted ultrasonic pulse…

ULTRASONIC CLIFF DETECTION AND DEPTH ESTIMATION USING TILTED SENSORS

Granted: May 18, 2023
Application Number: 20230152434
A robotic cleaning appliance includes a housing to which is coupled a surface treatment item and a sensor assembly with first and second transducers and an acoustic interface. The first sonic transducer transmits sonic signals through an acoustic interface and out of a first acoustic opening toward a surface beneath the robotic cleaning appliance. The sonic signals reflect from the surface as corresponding returned signals received by the second sonic transducer via a second acoustic…

ULTRASONIC DIRECT ECHO PATH REDUCTION

Granted: May 18, 2023
Application Number: 20230152433
A robotic cleaning appliance includes a housing to which is coupled a surface treatment item and a sensor assembly with first and second transducers and an acoustic interface. The first sonic transducer transmits sonic signals through an acoustic interface and out of a first acoustic opening toward a surface beneath the robotic cleaning appliance. The sonic signals reflect from the surface as corresponding returned signals received by the second sonic transducer via a second acoustic…

USING A HEARABLE TO GENERATE A USER HEALTH INDICATOR BASED ON USER TEMPERATURE

Granted: April 6, 2023
Application Number: 20230104773
A hearable comprises a wearable structure including a speaker, a sensor, and a temperature compensating circuit which measures temperature in an environment of the sensor. A portion of the wearable structure, which includes the sensor and temperature compensating circuit, is disposed within a user’s ear when in use. A sensor processing unit which is communicatively coupled with the temperature compensating circuit: acquires temperature data from the temperature compensating circuit…

GAZE TRACKING FOR A RETINAL PROJECTION DISPLAY SYSTEM

Granted: March 2, 2023
Application Number: 20230068608
A retinal projection display system includes at least one visible light source for projecting a visible light image, an infrared light source for projecting infrared light, a scanning mirror having a field of view larger than the visible light image, a reflective surface on which the visible light image is projected and on which the infrared light is reflected at least partially towards an eye of a user, wherein the reflective surface is larger than the visible light image, at least one…

ANCHOR CONFIGURATIONS FOR AN ARRAY OF ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCERS

Granted: March 2, 2023
Application Number: 20230067383
An ultrasonic transducer array including a substrate, a membrane overlying the substrate, the membrane configured to allow movement at ultrasonic frequencies, and a plurality of anchors connected to the substrate and connected to the membrane. The membrane includes a piezoelectric layer, a plurality of first electrodes, and a plurality of second electrodes, wherein each ultrasonic transducer of a plurality of ultrasonic transducers includes at least a first electrode and at least a…

DIFFERENTIAL RECEIVE AT AN ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCER

Granted: March 2, 2023
Application Number: 20230065212
An ultrasonic transducer device including a substrate, an edge support structure connected to the substrate, and a membrane connected to the edge support structure such that a cavity is defined between the membrane and the substrate, the membrane configured to allow movement at ultrasonic frequencies. The membrane includes a structural layer, a piezoelectric layer having a first surface and a second surface, a first electrode placed on the first surface of the piezoelectric layer,…

RETINAL PROJECTION DISPLAY SYSTEM

Granted: February 23, 2023
Application Number: 20230054450
A retinal projection display system includes a light source for projecting an image, a scanning mirror having a field of view larger than the image, and a reflective surface on which the image is projected, wherein the reflective surface is larger than the image. The scanning mirror projects the image onto a viewable region of the reflective surface such that the image is projected into a retina of a user.

TRANSMITTER CHARGE SHARING IN A DIFFERENTIAL ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCER

Granted: November 10, 2022
Application Number: 20220355339
An ultrasonic transducer device comprises a controller and a differential piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer with a membrane later, a bottom electrode layer, a piezoelectric layer, and a top electrode layer comprising a first electrode with a positive voltage to displacement coefficient and a second electrode with a negative voltage to displacement coefficient. During a first period, the controller electrically decouples a first output of a first driver from the first…

SURFACE TYPE DETECTION

Granted: October 27, 2022
Application Number: 20220342069
A robotic cleaning appliance includes a housing, surface treatment item, surface type detection sensor, and processor. The sensor emits sonic signals toward a surface being traversed and receives corresponding returned signals from the surface. The returned signals are used for surface type detection and include directly reflected primary returned signals and multi-path reflected secondary returned signals which return at a later time than the primary returned signals. The processor…

PROGRAMMABLE ULTRASONIC TRANSCEIVER

Granted: October 20, 2022
Application Number: 20220331837
An ultrasonic transceiver system includes a transmitter block, a receiver block, a state machine, a computer unit. The transmitter block contains circuitry configured to drive an ultrasound transducer. The receiver block contains circuitry configured to receive signals from the ultrasound transducer and convert the signals into digital data. The state machine is coupled to the transmitter and receiver blocks and contains circuitry configured to act as a controller for those blocks. The…

SURFACE TYPE DETECTION

Granted: October 13, 2022
Application Number: 20220326185
A robotic cleaning appliance includes a sonic transducer and a processor coupled with a housing. The sonic transducer transmits sonic signals toward a surface within its ringdown distance and receives corresponding returned signals. Following cessation of the sonic signals, the processor samples the ringdown signal generated by the sonic transducer during an early portion before the corresponding returned signals have reflected back to the sonic transducer, and during a later portion…

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR POSITIONING USING OPTICAL SENSOR AND MOTION SENSORS

Granted: April 7, 2022
Application Number: 20220107184
An integrated navigation solution is provided for a device within a moving platform. Motion sensor data from a sensor assembly of the device is obtained, optical samples from at least one optical sensor for the platform are obtained and map information for an environment encompassing the platform is obtained. Correspondingly, an integrated navigation solution is generated based at least in part on the obtained motion sensor data using a nonlinear state estimation technique, wherein the…

ULTRASONIC FINGERPRINT SENSOR WITH A CONTACT LAYER OF NON-UNIFORM THICKNESS

Granted: March 3, 2022
Application Number: 20220067324
An ultrasonic sensor includes a two-dimensional array of ultrasonic transducers, wherein the two-dimensional array of ultrasonic transducers is substantially flat, a contact layer having a non-uniform thickness overlying the two-dimensional array of ultrasonic transducers, and an array controller configured to control activation of ultrasonic transducers during an imaging operation. During the imaging operation, the array controller is configured to control a transmission frequency of…

DETERMINING FORCE APPLIED TO AN ULTRASONIC SENSOR

Granted: December 23, 2021
Application Number: 20210397290
In a method for determining force applied to an ultrasonic sensor, ultrasonic signals are emitted from an ultrasonic sensor. A plurality of reflected ultrasonic signals from a finger interacting with the ultrasonic sensor is captured. A first data based at least in part on a first reflected ultrasonic signal of the plurality of reflected ultrasonic signals is compared with a second data based at least in part on a second reflected ultrasonic signal of the plurality of reflected…

OPERATION OF AN ULTRASONIC SENSOR

Granted: December 23, 2021
Application Number: 20210396718
In a method of using an ultrasonic sensor comprising a two-dimensional array of ultrasonic transducers, a plurality of ultrasonic signals are transmitted according to a beamforming pattern at a position of the two-dimensional array. The beamforming pattern focuses the plurality of ultrasonic signals to location above the two-dimensional array, wherein the beamforming pattern identifies ultrasonic transducers of the two-dimensional array that are activated during transmission of the…

PRESSURE-BASED ACTIVATION OF FINGERPRINT SPOOF DETECTION

Granted: October 28, 2021
Application Number: 20210334568
In a method for performing operating a fingerprint sensor, an image of a fingerprint of a finger is captured at a fingerprint sensor. A force applied by the finger at the fingerprint sensor is determined, where the force is a measure of pressure applied by the finger on the fingerprint sensor during capture of the image. The force is compared to a pressure threshold. Provided the force satisfies a pressure threshold, a spoof detection operation is performed to determine whether the…

OPERATING A FINGERPRINT SENSOR COMPRISED OF ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCERS AND A PRESENCE SENSOR

Granted: September 16, 2021
Application Number: 20210286060
In a method for operating a fingerprint sensor including a plurality of ultrasonic transducers and a presence sensor, the presence sensor proximate the fingerprint sensor is activated, where the presence sensor is for detecting interaction between an object and the fingerprint sensor. Subsequent to detecting interaction between an object and the fingerprint sensor at the presence sensor, a subset of ultrasonic transducers of the fingerprint sensor is activated, the subset of ultrasonic…