Control circuit and control method for dimming a lighting device
Granted: October 20, 2015
Patent Number:
9167647
A control circuit comprises a power supply unit configured to generate a voltage to be supplied to a load by turning on and off a first switch in response to a drive signal and control a drive current of the load by turning on and off a second switch in response to a control signal, a first controller configured to perform a first PWM control of the drive signal, based on a measurement value of the drive current, a second controller configured to perform a second PWM control of the…
Capacitance to code converter with sigma-delta modulator
Granted: October 20, 2015
Patent Number:
9166621
An apparatus and method of converting a capacitance measured on a sensor element to a digital value. The apparatus may include a matrix-scanning device including drive lines and sense lines. A sense element is located at an intersection of one of the drive lines and one of the sense lines. The apparatus also includes a modulation circuit coupled to the drive lines and the sense lines, and a switching circuit having first switches controlled by a clock. The modulation circuit is…
High performance low profile QFN/LGA
Granted: October 20, 2015
Patent Number:
9165795
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device is disclosed. In one embodiment a semiconductor die is formed overlying a substrate. The semiconductor die is flip chip mounted to the substrate, wherein the substrate comprises a plurality of conductive traces. The semiconductor die and substrate are encapsulated with an encapsulating material. A top side of the encapsulating material is subjected to one of polishing, etching, and grinding to expose a top side of the semiconductor die.…
Barrier electrode driven by an excitation signal
Granted: October 20, 2015
Patent Number:
9164640
Apparatuses and methods of driving barrier electrodes of a capacitive-sense array with an excitation signal are described. One apparatus includes a capacitance-sensing circuit coupled to a capacitive-sense array including multiple electrodes. The capacitance-sensing circuit includes multiple sensing channels. The capacitance-sensing circuit is operative to measure signals on a first subset of the multiple electrodes using the multiple sensing channels. Each of the sensing channels is…
Method for fabricating memory cells having split charge storage nodes
Granted: October 13, 2015
Patent Number:
9159568
Memory cells having split charge storage nodes and methods for fabricating memory cells having split charge storage nodes are disclosed. A disclosed method includes forming a first trench and an adjacent second trench in a semiconductor substrate, the first trench and the second trench each defining a first sidewall and a second sidewall respectively and forming a first source/drain region in the substrate and a second source/drain region in the substrate, where the first source/drain…
Method of operating a processing chamber used in forming electronic devices
Granted: October 13, 2015
Patent Number:
9157150
Provided herein is a method of processing an electronic device including operating a processing chamber at a first temperature while a workpiece is being processed and removing the workpiece and a carrier holding the workpiece from the processing chamber while decreasing the temperature within the processing chamber to a second temperature significantly lower than the first temperature. The method also includes increasing the temperature within the processing chamber to a third…
High performance flash channel interface
Granted: October 6, 2015
Patent Number:
9152496
Systems and/or methods that facilitate high performance flash channel interface techniques are presented. Integrated error correction code (ECC) engine and buffer sets facilitate bypassing error correction of data being written to or read from memory, such as flash memory, in addition to single ECC mode or multiple ECC mode. The integrated ECC engines and buffers can quickly analyze data, and provide error correction information or correct error, significantly increasing throughput. In…
Capacitance to code converter with sigma-delta modulator
Granted: October 6, 2015
Patent Number:
9154160
An apparatus and method of converting a capacitance measured on a sensor element to a digital value. The apparatus may include a switching capacitor as a sensor element, a modulation circuit coupled to the sensor element, and a switching circuit having a plurality of switches controlled by a variable-period clock. The modulation circuit is configured to measure a capacitance on the sense element and to convert the measured capacitance to a digital value.
Adjacent wordline disturb reduction using boron/indium implant
Granted: October 6, 2015
Patent Number:
9153596
Semiconductor devices having reduced parasitic current and methods of malting the semiconductor devices are provided. Further provided are memory devices having reduced adjacent wordline disturb. The memory devices contain wordlines formed over a semiconductor substrate, wherein at least one wordline space is formed between the wordlines. Adjacent wordline disturb is reduced by implanting one or more of indium, boron, and a combination of boron and indium in the surface of the at least…
Semiconductor device having a semiconductor chip mounted on an insulator film and coupled with a wiring layer, and method for manufacturing the same
Granted: October 6, 2015
Patent Number:
9153541
A semiconductor device includes a first insulator film having a first opening, a first wiring layer extending from the first opening onto the first insulator film, a first semiconductor chip mounted on the first insulator film so as to be electrically coupled with the first wiring layer, and a resin portion applied on the first insulation film to cover the first semiconductor chip.
Apparatus and method for reducing average scan rate to detect a conductive object on a sensing device
Granted: October 6, 2015
Patent Number:
9152284
A switch circuit and method is described. In one embodiment, the switch circuit is configured to couple each of a plurality of plurality of capacitive sense elements and a plurality of capacitance sensors in different modes. In a first mode, the switch circuit is configured to couple each of the plurality of capacitance sensors to a group of two or more of the plurality of capacitive sense elements. In a second mode, the switch circuit is configured to couple the plurality of capacitance…
Computer system including reconfigurable arithmetic device with network of processor elements
Granted: September 29, 2015
Patent Number:
9146896
A computer system that includes a central processing unit, a random-access-memory interface, a random-access memory whose addresses are allocated in an address space of the random-access-memory interface, and a reconfigurable arithmetic device is described herein. The reconfigurable arithmetic device includes input terminals, output terminals, a network of plurality of processor elements, a built-in random-access memory, a control unit, an inter-processor-element network and a…
Communication apparatus, data communication method, and network system
Granted: September 22, 2015
Patent Number:
9143322
A communication apparatus includes a storage part configured to store a first key generated according to authentication with a transmission source, identification information of the transmission source, and first information remaining unchanged regardless of the initialization of a coupling status and corresponding to the transmission source, with the first key, the identification information and the first information mapped to each other, an acquisition part configured to acquire a…
Combined analog architecture and functionality in a mixed-signal array
Granted: September 22, 2015
Patent Number:
9143134
A system and apparatus are described for providing greater flexibility and performance in a mixed-signal array through improved and highly configurable routing, control elements and signal processing capabilities.
Screening for reference cells in a memory
Granted: September 22, 2015
Patent Number:
9142311
Selecting an array from among a plurality of arrays in a memory as a reference array. An exemplary method includes evaluating memory cells within the reference array to select a first reference cell associated with a first operation of the memory, and repeating the evaluating and the selecting to select a second reference cell from within the reference array, the second reference cell being associated with a second operation of the memory.
Data writing method and system
Granted: September 22, 2015
Patent Number:
9142301
A data writing method for writing data to a flash memory includes writing an initial value to the data storage area, determining whether or not the writing of the initial value is performed normally based on a write flag, writing data to the data storage area when the writing is performed normally, and erasing a block including the data storage area when the writing is not performed normally. An initial value is written to the data storage area before writing data, so that whether or not…
Pipelining in a memory
Granted: September 22, 2015
Patent Number:
9142270
A system including a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells, and a writing device to generate multiple back-to-back write pulses to write to target memory cells from among the plurality of memory cells, the multiple back-to-back write pulses overlapping during an overlap duration, the overlap duration being adjustable based on a performance parameter of the memory cell array.
Power-efficient voice activation
Granted: September 22, 2015
Patent Number:
9142215
A voice activation system is provided. The voice activation system includes a first stage configured to output a first activation signal if at least one energy characteristic of a received audio signal satisfies at least one threshold and a second stage configured to transition from a first state to a second state in response to the first activation signal and, when in the second state, to output a second activation signal if at least a portion of a profile of the audio signal…
Data pattern analysis
Granted: September 22, 2015
Patent Number:
9142209
A method and apparatus receive multiple data pattern analysis requests from a controller and substantially simultaneously perform, with multiple data pattern analysis units, multiple data pattern analyses on one or more portions of a data stream.
Dynamically switching communication modes in multi-standard wireless communication devices
Granted: September 15, 2015
Patent Number:
9137849
A method may include selecting at least an initial communication mode from a plurality of communication modes that each communicate with a master device using time division multiple access (TDMA); and dynamically switching communication modes between the master device and at least slave device in accordance with at least one predetermined characteristic of the wireless system.
