Sign detection in multi-dimensional signal measurements
Granted: July 4, 2017
Patent Number:
9697659
Systems, methods, circuits and computer-readable mediums are disclosed for sign detection in multi-dimensional signal measurements. In some implementations, orthogonally oriented antennas are configured to generate signals in response to a magnetic field, where the signals correspond to components of magnetic field vectors in space. A circuit is coupled to the antennas and configured to: determine polarities of the signals based on phase measurements between the signals; reduce a…
Stylus with low-power detector
Granted: July 4, 2017
Patent Number:
9696826
In one embodiment, a stylus includes a receiver for receiving signals wirelessly transmitted by a device. The stylus can alternate, during a first period of time, power supplied to the receiver between a first power for a first duration and a second power for a second duration. The first power is greater than the second power. The stylus can determine how many events exceeding an event criteria occurred the each first duration, and if the events exceed a threshold, the stylus can…
Measuring power consumption of circuit component operating in run mode
Granted: July 4, 2017
Patent Number:
9696353
A sense resistor is coupled between a power source and one or more power pins of an integrated circuit (IC) chip including a circuit component (e.g., a microcontroller unit (MCU)). An on-chip amplifier (e.g., a programmable gain amplifier or op-amp) amplifies the voltage drop over the sense resistor to a level that is within the dynamic range of an on-chip analog-to-digital converter (ADC). In some implementations, the measured signals can be time-stamped and stored in a trace buffer and…
Apparatus using a differential analog-to-digital converter
Granted: June 27, 2017
Patent Number:
9692439
Electronic apparatus and methods of operating the electronic apparatus include less than a frequency associated with a generated waveform. In various embodiments, an apparatus using a differential analog-to-digital converter can perform low frequency noise rejection that can be implemented in a variety of applications. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
System internal latency measurements in realtime applications
Granted: June 27, 2017
Patent Number:
9690727
Systems, methods, circuits and computer-readable mediums for system internal latency measurements in realtime applications are disclosed. In some implementations, a trigger signal is selected from a plurality of trigger signals for interrupting a processor of an integrated circuit system. The trigger signal includes a pulse having width. The system detects a rising edge of the pulse and starts a counter. The system detects a falling edge of the pulse and stops the counter. The system…
Peripheral register parameter refreshing
Granted: June 27, 2017
Patent Number:
9690726
Systems, methods, circuits and computer-readable mediums for peripheral sequencing using an access sequence are disclosed. In some implementations, a control register and status register in a peripheral are initialized with control data for selecting peripheral registers of the peripheral to be refreshed during an access sequence. For each peripheral register to be refreshed during the access sequence: a data register of the peripheral register is accessed; the peripheral register is…
Locking active stylus and touch-sensor device
Granted: June 27, 2017
Patent Number:
9690431
In one embodiment, a system comprises a touch sensor and a stylus. The touch sensor comprises drive lines and sense lines arranged such that intersections of the drive lines and sense lines form capacitive nodes. The drive lines transmits a first signal having an identification portion. The stylus comprises a sense unit and a drive unit. The sense unit senses the first signal from the drive lines, compares the identification portion to criteria stored in the stylus, and authorizes the…
Automatic gain control for received signal strength indication
Granted: June 20, 2017
Patent Number:
9685925
In some implementations, an automatic gain control (AGC) circuit comprises: a pre-divider circuit operable to pre-divide an input signal according to a pre-divider circuit setting and output a pre-divided signal; a pre-amplifier operable to pre-amplify the pre-divided signal and output a pre-amplified signal; a post-divider circuit operable to post-divide the pre-amplified signal according to a post-divider circuit setting; an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) operable to generate a…
Power trace port for tracing states of power domains
Granted: June 20, 2017
Patent Number:
9684367
A power trace port included in a system (e.g., a microcontroller system) having multiple power domains includes a power trace port that outputs digital signals indicating the states of the power domains. If each power domain is independent of other power domains in the system, each power domain can have its own set of power trace pins in the power trace port that are at least partially external to the system. If a power domain has multiple states, multiple pins can be used to indicate…
Increasing the dynamic range of an integrator based mutual-capacitance measurement circuit
Granted: June 6, 2017
Patent Number:
9671916
In one embodiment, a device comprises one or more memory units collectively storing logic configured to cause one or more processors to perform operations. The operations comprise: obtaining a first measurement associated with a first voltage output by a mutual-capacitance measurement circuit; obtaining a second measurement associated with a second voltage, the second voltage output by the mutual-capacitance measurement circuit in response to a first change in capacitance; obtaining a…
Passive transponder with a charging circuit
Granted: May 30, 2017
Patent Number:
9665749
In one embodiment, a passive transponder comprising a first circuit comprising a first attenuator, the first circuit configured to receive a first signal from at least one base station and coupled to a first node, a first rectifier coupled to the first node, the first rectifier configured in a forward direction to charge a first capacitor, and the first capacitor coupled to the first rectifier, the first capacitor configured to receive a charge from the attenuator sufficient for powering…
Locating a backscatter-based transponder
Granted: May 23, 2017
Patent Number:
9661401
A method and apparatus for locating a transponder is provided. A carrier signal is transmitted by a base station and a transponder transmits a locating signal that is generated through phase modulation and backscattering of the carrier signal sent by the base station when the transponder is within a transmission range of the base station, whereby the transponder is located on the basis of the locating signal.
Reference voltage circuits in microcontroller systems
Granted: May 23, 2017
Patent Number:
9658682
A microcontroller system includes a higher power reference voltage circuit and a lower power reference voltage circuit configured to draw less power than the higher power reference voltage circuit when enabled. The system includes a power state logic controller configured to enable the lower power reference voltage circuit to provide a first regulated voltage during a power saving mode, and, on exiting the power saving mode, enable the higher power reference voltage circuit to provide a…
Single wire communications using predictive host sampling window
Granted: May 16, 2017
Patent Number:
9652431
Systems and techniques for single-wire communications are described. A described system includes a host device, and a slave device coupled with the host device via a single-wire bus. The host device can be configured to transmit synchronization information based on transitions over the single-wire bus. The slave device can be configured to detect the transitions on the single-wire bus, determine timing information of the host device based on a first transition of the transitions and a…
Proximity detection
Granted: May 16, 2017
Patent Number:
9651355
In certain embodiments, a proximity sensor includes a sensing element, an oscillator connected to the sensing element, and control circuitry connected to the oscillator. The sensing element has a capacitance to ground that is variable as a function of the proximity of an object to the sensing element. The oscillator includes a capacitor. The control circuitry is configured to supply an excitation to the oscillator and a charge to the sensing element, and to measure the resonant frequency…
Resistive interpolation for a touch sensor with opaque conductive material
Granted: May 9, 2017
Patent Number:
9647658
In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises a substrate. The apparatus further comprises a plurality of drive electrodes disposed on the substrate. Each of the plurality of drive electrodes is formed of an opaque conductive material. The apparatus further comprises a plurality of resistors. For each adjacent pair of drive electrodes of the plurality of drive electrodes, a resistor of the plurality of resistors is coupled between the pair of drive electrodes.
System for debugging DMA system data transfer
Granted: May 9, 2017
Patent Number:
9645870
Systems and methods for generating DMA transaction trace records are described. One example system includes a controller that includes a trace module. The trace module receives transfer requests for direct memory access channels, receives timestamps indicative of a transfer request time, generates trace records, wherein each trace record includes a respective timestamp indicative of a transfer request time, generates save commands, and delivers the trace records and the save commands as…
Touch sensor with reduced anti-touch effects
Granted: April 25, 2017
Patent Number:
9634660
In an embodiment, a system comprises a touch sensor. The touch sensor comprises an insulating substrate and a plurality of electrodes disposed on the insulating substrate. The plurality of electrodes comprises a drive line having a plurality of drive electrodes and a sense line having a plurality of sense electrodes. At least one of the electrodes comprises a first conductive material having a hole portion substantially free of the first conductive material.
Interdigitated touchscreen electrodes
Granted: April 25, 2017
Patent Number:
9632628
A device includes a plurality of adjacent electrodes for a touch sensitive device. The electrodes run generally in a first direction. Adjacent electrodes are interdigitated to provide one or more interpolation sections of the electrodes. Touch sensitive devices may utilize such interdigitated electrodes as drive electrodes, along with transverse sense electrodes formed over a display.
Position-sensing panel and related methods
Granted: April 18, 2017
Patent Number:
9626045
An exemplary touch position-sensing panel has first and second electrodes that cross over each other to form touch sensing nodes at their intersections. Cut-outs are formed in the first electrodes at touch sensing nodes. The cut-outs extend at least partially across the region where second electrodes cross over the first electrode.
