Atmel Patent Grants

Circuit, process, and use of a memory for transmitting and/or receiving in a radio network

Granted: February 19, 2013
Patent Number: 8380137
Circuit, process, and use of a memory for transmitting and/or receiving in a radio network, with a memory, which has a first interface for reading and writing and a second interface for reading and writing, with an arithmetic logic unit, which is connected to the first interface for reading and writing, with a control unit, which is connected to the second interface for reading and writing, and with a transmit/receive unit, which is connected to the control unit for writing received data…

Ex-situ component recovery

Granted: February 12, 2013
Patent Number: 8372209
Disclosed herein are devices, methods and systems for ex-situ component recovery. The ex-situ recovery can be performed by desorbing or outgassing components of a processing system in a recovery system, rather than in the processing system itself. The recovery system can include a docking station and/or a heated vacuum chamber. The heated vacuum chamber can be used to desorb or outgas components that will be located inside the processing system, while the docking station can be used to…

Smart monitoring of light emitting diode strings

Granted: February 12, 2013
Patent Number: 8373364
System(s) and method(s) are provide to efficiently assess performance of a set of light emitting diode (LED) strings in an illumination system. A multiplexer component collects input signal from the one or more LED strings via a first set of one or more monitoring pins, processes the collected input signal, and extracts at least one output signal. The at least one output signal is conveyed to a demultiplexer component through a second set of one or more monitoring pins, wherein the…

Secure data exchange with a transponder

Granted: February 5, 2013
Patent Number: 8368516
A method includes transmitting, from a base station, a first request and receiving, from a transponder, a first code transmitted responsive to the first request. The method includes transmitting, from the base station, first encoded transmission information comprising a base station code encoded using the first code and a first identification. The base station transmits a second request, and a second code, transmitted by the transponder responsive to receiving the second request and…

Switching data pointers based on context

Granted: February 5, 2013
Patent Number: 8370606
Apparatus and methods for quickly switching active context between data pointer registers are disclosed. The apparatus can include a first register operable for storing a first data pointer and a second register operable for storing a second data pointer. A configuration register can provide a first signal specifying either the first or the second data pointer as an active data pointer. An instruction decoder can receive a data pointer instruction and output a second signal. The first…

Mechanism for storing and extracting trace information using internal memory in micro controllers

Granted: February 5, 2013
Patent Number: 8370687
This document relates to apparatus and methods to store and retrieve trace information in on-chip system memory of microcontrollers. A microcontroller comprises a microprocessor and a memory device accessible through a data bus and an address bus coupled to the microprocessor. The microcontroller includes on-chip debug logic coupled to the microprocessor. Trace data can be retrieved from system memory using a debug port of the debug logic. A system in accordance with the present…

Wireless data transmission between a base station and a transponder via inductive coupling

Granted: January 29, 2013
Patent Number: 8363737
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a carrier signal transmitted by a base station according to either a first data-transmission protocol or a second data-transmission protocol; detecting a first field gap in the carrier signal indicating initiation of a data transmission by the base station; and determining whether a reference duration is present in the carrier signal after the first field gap. The method includes, if the reference duration is present in the carrier signal…

Antenna for a backscatter-based RFID transponder

Granted: January 22, 2013
Patent Number: 8358251
An antenna for a backscatter-based RFID transponder is provided that has an integrated receive circuit having a capacitive input impedance for receiving a radio signal spectrally located in an operating frequency range. The antenna includes two antenna branches that extend outward from a connecting region in which the antenna branches can be connected to the integrated receive circuit, and a yoke-shaped first trace segment that is designed to connect the two antenna branches together.…

Compensating DFLL with error averaging

Granted: January 1, 2013
Patent Number: 8344817
A compensating DFLL (CDFLL) is disclosed that utilizes temperature readings at regular intervals in combination with production characterization data of a reference oscillator to compensate for frequency drift and nominal frequency error. In some implementations, the CDFLL selects a calibration value that is not optimal for frequency accuracy to minimize accumulated frequency error over time. More particularly, during a calibration run, mismatch between an ideal frequency and an actual…

Apparatus, circuit and method for automatic phase-shifting pulse width modulated signal generation

Granted: December 25, 2012
Patent Number: 8339174
Systems, circuits and methods for phase-shifting pulse width modulated signal generation are disclosed. In some embodiments, a phase-shifting pulse width modulation circuit is configured to output pulses based on an input pulse width modulated signal. The pulses are staggered relative to one another, and can be received by a light-emitting diode driver for driving a light-emitting diode string at one or more time periods. The phase-shifting pulse width modulation circuit can include a…

Circuit for a radio system, use and method for operation

Granted: December 25, 2012
Patent Number: 8340236
A circuit and method of operation for a circuit of a radio system in which a system time is divided into symbols, in which a system clock generator is activated in an operating mode, so that the system time is determined from an output clock signal of the system clock generator by counting, in which the system clock generator is deactivated in a sleep mode, in which an output clock signal of a sleep clock generator is blanked as a function of an output signal of a modulo divider in the…

Integrated circuit with adjusting elements and method for its manufacture

Granted: December 25, 2012
Patent Number: 8338970
An integrated circuit is disclosed with adjusting elements, which in a first manufacturing stage are connected via tracks to terminal pads lying outside the integrated circuit. At least one of the tracks of the integrated circuit lies on a surface of a region, which includes semiconductor material and in a second manufacturing stage is isolated by a pn junction from additional semiconductor material, which is adjacent to the region. Furthermore, a method for manufacturing this type of…

Stacked-die electronics package with planar and three-dimensional inductor elements

Granted: December 4, 2012
Patent Number: 8324023
An apparatus and a method for producing three-dimensional integrated circuit packages. In one embodiment, an electronics package with at least two dice are stacked one atop another is disclosed. A top die is of smaller size compared with a bottom die such that after a die attach operation, wire-bond pads of the bottom die will be exposed for a subsequent wire bonding operation. The bottom die contains contact pads on the front side that couple with one or more passive components…

Command decoder for microcontroller based flash memory digital controller system

Granted: December 4, 2012
Patent Number: 8327161
A command decoder used for a microcontroller based Flash memory digital controller system includes multiple subsystems, including the command decoder, which serves as the main user interface for interpreting commands from a user and managing the priority of commands and command modes. The command decoder also stores crucial information including address, data, opcodes, and various flags registers that are used by other subsystems including the program buffer, burst read module, register…

Testing circuit for an analog to digital converter

Granted: November 27, 2012
Patent Number: 8319509
A testing circuit configures an analog to digital converter (ADC) to receive a test signal instead of a live input signal. The testing circuit compares an output test value from the ADC to an expected test value for the test signal. The testing circuit provides an expected live output value to a digital circuit instead of the output test value, thereby preventing the ADC from providing a value to the digital circuit not based on the live input signal.

Apparatus and methodology for enhancing efficiency of a power distribution system having power factor correction capability by using a self-calibrating controller

Granted: November 20, 2012
Patent Number: 8314572
The present invention relates to circuits and methods for controlling one or more LED strings. The circuit comprises a programmable controller coupled to one or more detectors, wherein the one or more detectors are configured to detect one or more measurable parameters of one or more LEDs or LED drivers. The controller is configured to receive information from the one or more detectors related to the one or more measurable parameters and use that information to determine the desired…

Transmitting data between a base station and a transponder

Granted: November 20, 2012
Patent Number: 8315276
In particular embodiments, an error correction during the transmission of the data word is made possible through the change of the modulation state at pre-defined time points.

Apparatus and method for the detection of and recovery from inappropriate bus access in microcontroller circuits

Granted: November 20, 2012
Patent Number: 8316017
An inappropriate-access module is incorporated in a computer system along with other computer system modules. The inappropriate-access module is connected to a read address decoder and controlling logic located within various other modules. The inappropriate-access module detects inappropriate read accesses or the occurrence of the inappropriate access during operations performed on related sensitive system resources in accompanying computer system modules. The inappropriate-access…

Microcontroller based flash memory digital controller system

Granted: November 20, 2012
Patent Number: 8316174
Some embodiments includes a digital control system having a microcontroller to handle a first command associated with a first operation of a memory device, and circuitry coupled to the microcontroller to handle a second command associated with a second operation of the memory device without involving the microcontroller in the second operation.

Transponder and method for operating a transponder

Granted: November 13, 2012
Patent Number: 8311476
A transponder and method for operating a transponder, which has a capacitor (Cbuf) for storing power transmitted via an air interface and an arithmetic logic unit (10) that can be supplied with the stored power, in which a capacitor voltage (VC) of the capacitor (Cbuf) is compared with a first threshold (V1), in which the capacitor voltage (VC) is compared with a second threshold (V2), whereby the first threshold (V1) and the second threshold (V2) are different, in which in a first…