INTER-DEVICE COMMUNICATION IN A BATTERY MANAGEMENT AND PROTECTION SYSTEM
Granted: October 10, 2013
Application Number:
20130265009
A battery management and protection system includes a string of battery management and protection integrated circuit devices that may be connected to one another in a daisy chain configuration. Some of the devices can be electrically connected to one or more battery cells. Each device includes an inter-device communication interface comprising a daisy chain line driver. The system includes a controller external to the string of devices and a bi-directional connection lines connecting…
Adaptive Programming For Non-Volatile Memory Devices
Granted: September 26, 2013
Application Number:
20130250692
Systems and techniques for performing write operations on non-volatile memory are described. A described system includes a memory structure including non-volatile memory cells that are arranged on word lines and bit lines and a microcontroller that is communicatively coupled with the memory structure. The memory structure can include non-volatile memory cells that are arranged on word lines and bit lines. The microcontroller can be configured to receive data to write to the memory…
Digital Architectures For Serial Data Stream Operations
Granted: September 12, 2013
Application Number:
20130238963
Systems and techniques for serial data stream operations are described. A described system includes a serial bus communicatively coupled with a memory structure to handle a serial data stream from or to the memory structure; generators configured to generate enablement signals that are associated with different bit-groups of the serial data stream, each of the enablement signals including pulses that are aligned with time-slots that are associated with a respective bit-group; logic…
Boosting Memory Reads
Granted: September 12, 2013
Application Number:
20130235679
A memory device comprises memory elements that are arranged in an array. The array includes rows associated with wordlines and columns associated with bitlines. The memory elements in a row share a wordline and memory elements in a column share a bitline. For each wordline, a wordline driver circuit is associated with the wordline. The memory device comprises a boost circuit that has an output coupled to the wordline driver circuits. The boost circuit is configured to provide a negative…
Buffer-Reference Self-Capacitance Measurement
Granted: September 12, 2013
Application Number:
20130234976
In one embodiment, a method includes modifying an amount of charge of a capacitance of a touch sensor resulting in a voltage at the capacitance being a reference voltage level. The method also includes modifying the amount of charge of the capacitance resulting in the voltage at the capacitance being a first pre-determined voltage level. The modified amount of charge of the capacitance induces a first amount of charge on an integration capacitor and the first amount of charge modifies…
Programmable Logic Unit
Granted: August 29, 2013
Application Number:
20130222012
Programmable logic units are described. A described unit includes one or more input interfaces to receive one or more input signals; logic elements that are individually programmable; one or more output interfaces to provide one or more output signals; and a programmable interconnect array that is configured to selectively form one or more interconnections within the unit based on one or more programming settings. The programmable interconnect array can be programmable to route the one…
SINGLE-WIRE BOOTLOADER FOR TARGET DEVICE WITH SELF-PROGRAMMING CAPABILITY
Granted: August 22, 2013
Application Number:
20130219159
A single-wire bootloader software architecture is disclosed that interfaces with any host device that has a serial port to program memory of a target device using only a single general-purpose I/O pin. The single-wire bootloader does not require any chip hardware resource modules. Instead, the single-wire bootloader implements a single-wire UART in software that monitors a single general-purpose I/O pin for commands from the host device.
Pulse Width Modulation Controller Architectures
Granted: June 20, 2013
Application Number:
20130154602
Systems, apparatuses, and techniques for pulse width modulation (PWM) are described. A described system includes a circuit that contains an inductor and a transistor that controls current through the inductor based on a PWM signal to produce an output; and a controller to provide the PWM signal, which includes PWM cycles that include on-durations and off-durations. The controller can receive a first signal indicating an input voltage that is applied to the inductor, receive a second…
Single-Layer Touch Sensor
Granted: June 20, 2013
Application Number:
20130154991
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a touch sensor. The touch sensor is disposed on one or more substrates. The touch sensor includes at least one drive electrode and at least one sense electrode. The drive and sense electrodes each include a base portion and a plurality of digits coupled to the base portion. The spaces between the digits of the drive electrode are partially occupied by a digit of a sense electrode (and vice versa). The drive and sense electrodes occupy the same…
SWITCHED-CAPACITOR, CURVATURE-COMPENSATED BANDGAP VOLTAGE REFERENCE
Granted: June 20, 2013
Application Number:
20130154721
In a novel aspect, producing a reference bandgap voltage includes generating a proportional to absolute temperature (PTAT) voltage difference based on respective voltages across a first pair of diodes. The PTAT voltage difference is sampled and scaled using a switched-capacitor amplifier. The switched-capacitor amplifier also is used to sample and scale a difference in voltages across a second pair of diodes, one of which is biased with a PTAT current and the other of which is biased…
ADAPTIVE PHASE-LEAD COMPENSATION WITH MILLER EFFECT
Granted: June 20, 2013
Application Number:
20130154593
An adaptive phase-lead compensation (zero) circuit is disclosed that can be added to a circuit (e.g., a CMOS-based LDO) to ease the compensation and increase the phase margin of the circuit. By using the disclosed adaptive phase-lead compensation circuit, an adjustable resistance can be connected to any nodes in the compensated circuit rather than just to the voltage source (VDD) or ground (GND), allowing the Miller Effect to be used via a Miller capacitor.
Current-mode Sense Amplifier for high-speed sensing
Granted: June 13, 2013
Application Number:
20130148453
A sense amplifier circuit according to some implementations includes a differential input stage to receive mirrored input currents and a transistor switch whose state is controlled by a signal applied to its gate. The sense amplifier circuit includes a pair of cross-coupled NMOS transistors and a pair of cross-coupled PMOS transistors to which the mirrored input currents are coupled and whose drain nodes are shorted when the transistor switch is in a conductive state. The sense amplifier…
SENSE AMPLIFIER WITH OFFSET CURRENT INJECTION
Granted: June 13, 2013
Application Number:
20130148432
A sense amplifier includes a sense input node, a current mirror circuit to mirror the current on the sense input node, and a result output node. A current source supplies an offset current. The sense amplifier increases the current on the sense input node by the offset current and reduces the offset current from the mirrored current at the result output node.
Self-Power for Device Driver
Granted: June 13, 2013
Application Number:
20130147358
The disclosed implementations utilize the voltage drop inherent in the device string to power a device control IC. In some implementations, current is drawn from the bottom of the device string and applied to a voltage supply pin of the device control IC. In some implementations, current is drawn from some other location in the device string (e.g., near the bottom or midpoint of the device string) using a switch. In some implementations, current is drawn from near the bottom and the…
Microcontroller resource sharing
Granted: June 6, 2013
Application Number:
20130145063
A system includes one or more master modules configured to execute instructions embedded in non-transitory machine-readable media and controllable by a processor. The system also includes one or more peripheral modules that are configured to execute instructions embedded in non-transitory machine-readable media and controllable by the processor. The system also includes a system bus with instructions embedded in a non-transitory machine-readable medium and configured to allow data…
Substantially Edgeless Touch Sensor
Granted: June 6, 2013
Application Number:
20130141119
In one embodiment, an apparatus is provided that includes a touch sensor. The touch sensor includes a plurality of drive electrodes made of conductive material, a plurality of sense electrodes made of conductive material, and a plurality of edges. Each of the drive electrodes and each of the sense electrodes are coupled to at least one track. The tracks are located along only one of the plurality of edges of the touch sensor.
Circuit for Driving Light Emitting Elements
Granted: May 30, 2013
Application Number:
20130134889
In one novel aspect, driving a string of light emitting elements, such as LEDs, includes applying a drive signal to circuitry that regulates a voltage appearing at a source of a transistor whose drain is coupled to one end of the string of light emitting elements and whose source is coupled to ground through a resistive element. Sequencing of the drive signal and a voltage supply signal for the light emitting elements is controlled such that the voltage supply signal is not increased…
Analog rail-to-rail comparator with hysteresis
Granted: May 16, 2013
Application Number:
20130120046
According to a novel aspect, operating an analog rail-to-rail comparator circuit with common mode detection of differential input signals includes generating a hysteresis current for the comparator circuit based on a common mode voltage used for the common mode detection. The hysteresis current is added to a differential output of a comparator in the comparator circuit, such that a hysteresis voltage at an output of the comparator circuit is substantially independent of the common mode…
Color Correcting Device Driver
Granted: May 9, 2013
Application Number:
20130113381
A color correcting device driver is configured to vary the equivalent current into light emitting elements (e.g., LEDs) with the frequency of the AC input current (e.g., 120 Hz). In implementations that include a fly-back controller with a power factor correction (PFC) controller on the primary side, the color correcting device driver performs the method of: 1) turning on the loads (e.g., white and CA strings of LEDs); 2) determining if the voltage supplied to the loads has dropped by a…
POWER CONVERSION FEEDBACK CONTROL CIRCUIT
Granted: May 9, 2013
Application Number:
20130113445
A power conversion circuit of two feedback loops is disclosed that includes a feedback control circuit for ramping up or down a commanded voltage to a load (e.g., LEDs). The second feedback loop feeds into the first feedback loop, and the second feedback loop operates at a slower bandwidth than the first feedback loop. When ramping up or down the commanded voltage, a voltage overshoot results because of delay in the system. The overshoot can be compensated for by a final adjustment to…
