Self-capacitance measurement with compensated capacitance
Granted: February 10, 2015
Patent Number:
8952927
In one embodiment, a method includes dividing a first amount of charge between a capacitance of a touch sensor and a compensation capacitor. The division of the first amount of charge results in a first voltage at an input node. The method also includes applying a reference voltage at the input node. The application of the reference voltage at the input node induces a second amount of charge proportional to a difference between the first voltage and the reference voltage on an…
Multi-channel driver equalizer
Granted: February 10, 2015
Patent Number:
8952623
The disclosed multi-channel driver equalizer circuit matches currents in multiple strings of illumination devices at low current levels by using an analog equalizer to sequentially couple the output of a reference amplifier in series with each current source amplifier in a current limit loop of the driver equalizer circuit to correct the offsets of the current source amplifiers, resulting in the matching of string currents on average.
Stylus
Granted: February 3, 2015
Patent Number:
8947404
A stylus may have a flat portion on a movable tip at one end for contact with a flat surface, or a stylus may have movable pins adjustable in response to contact pressure for use with a non-flat surface.
Line spacing in mesh designs for touch sensors
Granted: February 3, 2015
Patent Number:
8947391
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a touch sensor that includes a mesh of conductive material configured to extend across a display that includes multiple pixels that each include sub-pixels and dead space. The mesh includes multiple first and second lines of conductive material. The first lines are substantially parallel to each other, and the second lines are substantially parallel to each other. Each of the sub-pixels includes a color element separated from adjacent sub-pixels…
Line spacing in mesh designs for touch sensors
Granted: February 3, 2015
Patent Number:
8947390
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a touch sensor that includes a mesh of conductive material configured to extend across a display that includes multiple pixels that each include sub-pixels. The mesh includes multiple first and second lines of conductive material. The first lines are substantially parallel to each other, and the second lines are substantially parallel to each other. Each of the pixels has a first pixel pitch (PPx) along a first axis and a second pixel pitch (PPy)…
Inductive charging for active stylus
Granted: February 3, 2015
Patent Number:
8947379
In one embodiment, a stylus includes one or more electrodes and one or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying logic for transmitting signals wirelessly to a device through a touch sensor of the device. The stylus also includes inductive-charging components in or on the stylus for charging or powering the stylus with electromagnetic radiation from inductive-charging components in or on the device. The inductive-charging components in or on the stylus may also charge…
Capacitive coupling of bond pads
Granted: February 3, 2015
Patent Number:
8947105
In one embodiment, a system includes a touch sensor comprising a first set of electrodes and a first set of bond pads electrically coupled to the first set of electrodes. The system also includes a second set of bond pads capacitively coupled to the first set of bond pads. Each bond pad of the second set of bond pads is coincident with a bond pad of the first set of bond pads. The system also includes a circuit electrically coupled to the second set of bond pads such that signals may be…
Two-layer sensor stack
Granted: February 3, 2015
Patent Number:
8946574
In one embodiment, an method apparatus includes an optically clear adhesive (OCA) layer between a cover sheet and a substrate. The substrate has drive or sense electrodes of a touch sensor disposed on a first surface and a second surface of the substrate. The first surface is opposite the second surface and the drive or sense electrodes are made of a conductive mesh of conductive material including metal.
Line spacing in mesh designs for touch sensors
Granted: February 3, 2015
Patent Number:
8943903
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a touch sensor that includes a mesh of conductive material configured to extend across a display that includes multiple pixels that each include sub-pixels. The mesh includes multiple first and second lines of conductive material. The first lines are substantially parallel to each other, and the second lines are substantially parallel to each other. Each of the pixels has a first pixel pitch (PPx) along a first axis and a second pixel pitch (PPy)…
Battery management and protection system using a module in a sleepwalking mode to monitor operational characteristics of a battery
Granted: January 27, 2015
Patent Number:
8943335
A battery management and protection system can include various features to improve safety-critical and other functions. Among the features that can be included in some implementations are automatic loading of safety or other parameters during start-up of the system; a centralized timekeeper and an event system that can trigger actions in the system independently of a central processing unit; use of the same modules for both automatically-controlled safety-related measurements and…
Operations using direct memory access
Granted: January 27, 2015
Patent Number:
8943238
A system includes a serial interface, a peripheral device coupled to the serial interface, non-volatile memory, and a DMA controller including multiple linked channels. The various channels can be configured in different modes to facilitate the DMA controller performing various operations, such as data transfer, with respect to the non-volatile memory or the peripheral device.
Circuit, use, and method for controlling a receiver circuit
Granted: January 27, 2015
Patent Number:
8942324
A circuit, use, and method for controlling a receiver circuit is provided, wherein a complex baseband signal is generated from a received signal, a phase difference between a phase of the complex baseband signal and a phase precalculated from previous sampled values is determined, the phase difference is compared with a first threshold, a number is determined by counting the exceedances of the first threshold by the phase difference, a number of the counted exceedances is compared with a…
Complex adhesive boundaries for touch sensors
Granted: January 27, 2015
Patent Number:
8941014
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a cover panel. The apparatus also includes a first optically clear adhesive (OCA) layer coupled to the cover panel. The apparatus also includes a substrate coupled to the first OCA layer. The substrate has drive or sense electrodes of a touch sensor disposed on a first side. The substrate also has a first connection pad region. The first connection pad region includes a first outer zone, a second outer zone, and a first connection pad zone. The…
Capacitive touch sensors
Granted: January 20, 2015
Patent Number:
8937611
A touch data set is acquired via signals from each sensing node in a capacitive sensor array having a plurality of sensing nodes. Touch presence and location on the capacitive sensor array is determined from the touch data set. In subsequent sampling periods while presence of a touch continues to be detected, touch data sets may be acquired from respective subsets of the sensing nodes, each subset being located at and adjacent to the touch location determined in the preceding sampling…
Pulse- or frame-based communication using active stylus
Granted: January 13, 2015
Patent Number:
8933899
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving sensor data from one or more sensors in or on a stylus, the stylus including one or more electrodes and one or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying logic for wirelessly transmitting signals to a device through a touch sensor of the device. The method includes generating a carrier signal and modulating the carrier signal to communicate the sensor data and wirelessly transmitting from the stylus to the device the…
Systems and methods for communication with a smart power meter over optical fiber
Granted: January 13, 2015
Patent Number:
8933816
A system and method for facilitating smart power meter monitoring are provided. The system for facilitating smart power meter monitoring includes a standards-based frame detector, a CDR, at least one 8b/10 encoder/decoder and data links to receive input signals and transmit output signals. The system provides for the conversion of incoming SerDes signals, like those that may be transmitted from an optical module, into UART signals that can be communicated to the smart power meter…
Circuitry for current regulated, externally controlled LED driving
Granted: January 13, 2015
Patent Number:
8933640
A current driver circuit for regulating a light emitting diode (LED) is disclosed. An example driver circuit uses one input node of the driver circuit for controlling both maximum brightness and dimming of an LED coupled to an output node of the driver circuit. The driver circuit supplies a reference voltage (VREF) to its input node. A microcontroller is coupled through a resistor or other resistive component to the input node of the driver circuit and provides the input current, where…
Semiconductor package
Granted: January 13, 2015
Patent Number:
8933552
In one embodiment, a semiconductor package comprising a metal base coupled to one or more pins, a semiconductor body having a top side and a bottom side, the top side comprising an integrated circuit and one or more metal surfaces for coupling the integrated circuit to the one more pins with one or more bonding wires, the bottom side non-positively coupled to the metal base, a disk having a top area and a base area, the base area coupled to the top side of the semiconductor body and at…
Differential sensing for capacitive touch sensors
Granted: January 6, 2015
Patent Number:
8928624
A first signal from a first sense line of a touch sensor is received. A second signal from a second of the touch sensor is received. The first signal is inverted. The inverted first signal and the second signal are summed to produce a differential signal. The differential signal is output to a touch sensor controller.
Pulse width modulation based controller
Granted: January 6, 2015
Patent Number:
8928301
A control circuit adjusts the duty cycle of a PWM control signal. An analog processing component within the control circuit receives an analog feedback input signal and compares it to an analog reference signal to generate a pre-processed signal. A sigma-delta modulator within the analog processing component generates a quantized signal based on the pre-processed signal. A digital processing component stores a value. The controller then adjusts the duty cycle of the PWM signal to…
