Suppression of Program Disturb with Bit Line and Select Gate Voltage Regulation
Granted: September 24, 2020
Application Number:
20200303023
Techniques for suppression of program disturb in flash memory devices are described herein. In an example embodiment, a method for suppression of program disturb in a flash memory array is provided. The flash memory array comprises rows and columns of memory cells, where the memory cells in each row are coupled to a source line and to a select-gate (SG) line, and the memory cells in each column are coupled to a respective bit line (BL). During a program memory operation, a first voltage,…
VARIABLE READ LATENCY ON A SERIAL MEMORY BUS
Granted: September 24, 2020
Application Number:
20200301856
Systems and/or methods are provided that facilitate employing a variable read latency on a serial memory bus. In an aspect, a memory can utilize an undefined amount of time to obtain data from a memory array and prepare the data for transfer on the serial memory bus. The serial memory bus can be driven to a defined state. When data is ready for transfer, the memory can assert a start bit on the serial memory bus to notify a host prior to initiating the data transfer.
MEMORY DEVICES, SYSTEMS, AND METHODS FOR UPDATING FIRMWARE WITH SINGLE MEMORY DEVICE
Granted: September 24, 2020
Application Number:
20200301698
Example apparatus, systems and methods receive a new firmware image at a memory device and place the new firmware image into second nonvolatile storage locations of the memory device such that the second nonvolatile storage locations do not overlap with first nonvolatile storage locations of the memory device that store a current firmware image. Embodiments place a logical address to physical address mapping for the new firmware image into a remap data structure stored in memory circuits…
Programmable Shunt Regulator
Granted: September 24, 2020
Application Number:
20200301456
Example apparatus, systems, and methods receive, by a current digital-to-analog converter (DAC) of a shunt regulator, a first digital code indicative of a first programmable power supply command specifying a first programmable output voltage (Vbus) to be delivered to a voltage bus of a USB-compatible device. The programmable power supply command is compatible with a universal serial bus—power delivery (USB-PD) standard. Responsive to receipt of the first digital code, adjust, by the…
Combined Analog Architecture and Functionality in a Mixed-Signal Array
Granted: September 24, 2020
Application Number:
20200300910
A microcontroller comprises a plurality of digital peripheral blocks and a direct memory access (DMA) controller coupled thereto. The plurality of digital peripheral blocks includes a digital peripheral block that is configured to issue a DMA request. Upon receipt of the DMA request, the DMA controller is configured to retrieve configuration information and to write the configuration information to a configuration register associated with a circuit element of the microcontroller.
GPS-ASSISTED COLLABORATIVE AND SIGNALING-AIDED WLAN DFS OPERATION
Granted: September 17, 2020
Application Number:
20200296659
Disclosed are methods and systems for a WLAN device to select an operating dynamic frequency selection (DFS) channel that minimizes the probability of radar interference by using aiding information. The aiding information may be a crowd-sourced database of geo-tagged radar zones including one or more DFS channels used within the geo-tagged radar zones that are detected by a plurality of WLAN devices. The WLAN device may query the crowd-sourced database for a geo-tagged radar zone that is…
ENCRYPTED GANG PROGRAMMING
Granted: September 10, 2020
Application Number:
20200287716
Disclosed are apparatus and methods for programming a plurality of nonvolatile memory (NVM) devices. Each NVM device self-generates and stores a unique encryption key. Each NVM device concurrently receives an image from a multiple-device programming system to which all the NVM devices are communicatively coupled. Each NVM device encrypts the received image using such NVM device's unique encryption key to produce a unique encrypted image for each NVM device. Each NVM device stores its…
FERROELECTRIC RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY SENSING SCHEME
Granted: August 13, 2020
Application Number:
20200258561
Semiconductor memory devices and methods of operating the same are provided. The method of operation may include the steps of selecting a ferroelectric memory cell for a read operation, coupling a first pulse signal to interrogate the selected ferroelectric memory cell, the selected ferroelectric memory cell outputting a memory signal to a bit-line in response to the first pulse signal, coupling the memory signal to a first input of a sense amplifier via the bit-line, electrically…
GUIDED PLACEMENT OF A WIRELESS DEVICE FOR OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE
Granted: July 30, 2020
Application Number:
20200245155
Techniques for guided placement of a wireless device are described herein. In an example embodiment, a wi-fi wireless device comprises a radio frequency (RF) transceiver coupled to a baseband processor. The RF transceiver is configured to receive an RF signal transmitted over a wireless channel and to convert the RF signal to a modulated digital signal. The baseband processor is configured to receive the modulated digital signal from the RF transceiver, extract a wireless packet from the…
POWER MANAGEMENT AND DATA BANDWIDTH IMPROVEMENTS FOR PASSIVE ENTRY, PASSIVE START (PEPS)
Granted: July 23, 2020
Application Number:
20200236494
A passive entry, passive start (PEPS) application is described, wherein a number of sensors are configured with wireless communication protocol information for wireless communication between a master device and a BLE hub. The sensors eavesdrop signals from the master device to the BLE hub while not in operative communication with the master device. Eavesdropped signals are processed to determine and calculate position-related information, such as phase and magnitude of the wireless…
DEVICES, SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR POWER OPTIMIZATION USING TRANSMISSION SLOT AVAILABILITY MASK
Granted: July 16, 2020
Application Number:
20200229215
A method can include at a combination device, receiving or generating a slot availability mask (SAM) information compatible with a Bluetooth and/or Bluetooth Low Energy (BT) standard; by operation of BT compatible circuits of the combination device, determining a schedule of BT compatible data transfers in response to at least the SAM information; and by operation of circuits compatible with at least one IEEE 802.11 wireless standard (WLAN circuits), determining a schedule of WLAN…
GENERATING AND ANALYZING NETWORK PROFILE DATA
Granted: July 2, 2020
Application Number:
20200213350
A device may generate network profile data indicating a set of network parameters detected by the device. The device may encrypt the network profile data and may transmit the encrypted network profile data to a network device, such as a router, or a server. The router or server may analyze the encrypted network profile data to determine if the device is secure. The router of server may perform one or more security measures if the device is not secure.
SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR LOW POWER CONSUMPTION BY A WIRELESS SENSOR DEVICE
Granted: July 2, 2020
Application Number:
20200212953
An example system and method operate a wireless device in a first mode with power to operate a communication resource of the wireless device turned off. While operating the wireless device in the first mode, the system and method evaluates an attribute in a first portion of sensor data. Responsive to the evaluation of the attribute, the system and method transitions to the wireless device to operate in a second mode with power to operate the communication resource turned on. The system…
CONTACTS FOR SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
Granted: July 2, 2020
Application Number:
20200212215
In an example embodiment, a method comprises: forming first spacers adjacent to a memory cell formed on a substrate, each of the first spacers being formed in direct contact with the substrate, where forming the memory cell includes forming a control gate electrode and a tunnel oxide layer over the substrate and subsequently etching completely at least the control gate electrode and the tunnel oxide layer that are disposed beyond the memory cell; forming an interlayer dielectric layer…
Capacitive Motion Sensor
Granted: July 2, 2020
Application Number:
20200209999
A spatial frequency based capacitive motion system and method of operating the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes an array of sense cells to sense capacitance variations induced by a detected surface in proximity to the array. The system further includes processing circuitry including one or more differential detectors and a processor to process output signals from the one or more differential detectors to measure displacement of the detected surface in a…
OPERATION OF ACCESS POINTS AND AUTONOMOUS GROUP OWNERS
Granted: June 25, 2020
Application Number:
20200205009
A system includes an apparatus and a station. The apparatus includes a first access point (AP) function configured to operate on a first channel of a first frequency band and a second AP function configured to operate on a second channel of a second frequency band. The apparatus also includes a processing device. In response to detecting that the second channel is unavailable for use by the second AP function, the processing device is configured to transition the second AP function to…
SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND DEVICES FOR USER CONFIGURABLE WEAR LEVELING OF NON-VOLATILE MEMORY
Granted: June 18, 2020
Application Number:
20200192583
In an example embodiment, a device comprises a non-volatile memory and wear leveling control circuitry. The non-volatile memory comprises logical memory sectors mapped to physical memory sectors, and a supervisory memory sector configured to store a mapping of the logical memory sectors to memory partitions with user-defined boundaries. The wear leveling control circuitry is configured to: receive and store, in the mapping, wear leveling parameters based on user input, where each memory…
ENERGY-EFFICIENT IDLE LISTENING SCHEMES
Granted: June 11, 2020
Application Number:
20200187114
Two methods for energy-efficient idle listening enhancement for WLAN systems are provided. The first method performs a change of operation of a station (STA) from an active mode to an idle listening mode without notifying the change to an access point (AP) associated with the STA. In the idle listening mode, the AP may transmit frames to the STA using a higher bandwidth, but the STA can only sense channels in a lower bandwidth to save energy. The second method transmits a frame to the AP…
POWER SUPPLY ARCHITECTURE FOR USB-C CONTROLLERS
Granted: June 4, 2020
Application Number:
20200174546
In an example embodiment, a Universal Serial Bus Type-C (USB-C) cable comprises a respective integrated circuit (IC) controller, disposed at each end of cable, that is coupled to a respective VCONN line at that end of the cable. Each IC controller comprises a power rail, a VDDD terminal, a VBUS terminal, and a VCONN terminal that is coupled to the VCONN line at the respective end of the cable. The VDDD terminal, the VCONN terminal, and the VBUS terminal are coupled to the power rail. The…
DYNAMIC ANTENNA ARRAY PATTERN SWITCHING IN WIRELESS SYSTEMS
Granted: June 4, 2020
Application Number:
20200178054
An example method of operating a device includes using a switching circuitry to a first subset of antennas from an antenna cluster, using the first subset of antennas to receive a first Bluetooth signal, generating a first directional value of the first Bluetooth signal, using a processing element to evaluate at least one antenna of the antenna cluster based at least partly on the first directional value, selecting a second subset of antennas based on evaluation, using the second subset…
