SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING SINGLE INDUCTOR DUAL OUTPUT DC/DC CONVERTERS
Granted: August 4, 2011
Application Number:
20110187189
A DC to DC converter comprises voltage regulation circuitry for generating at least two output voltages responsive to an input voltage. The voltage regulation circuitry further includes a plurality of main switches connected to receive the input voltage. A plurality of auxiliary switches is connected to provide the at least two output voltages. A single inductor is connected between the plurality of main switches and the plurality of auxiliary switches. A dual-output PWM controller…
PHOTODIODE FRONT END WITH IMPROVED POWER SUPPLY REJECTION RATIO (PSRR)
Granted: July 28, 2011
Application Number:
20110180693
An area effective system and method for improving power supply rejection ratio (PSRR) in an optical sensor front end, is provided. Moreover, low pass filter (LPF) that enables the reference voltage in the front end of the optical sensor, to be referred to the same substrate as that employed by the sensor. In one example, the LPF includes a capacitor, implemented using a Deep-N-Well (DNW) depletion capacitor, which is utilized to connect the reference voltage to the same substrate.…
SERIAL-CHAINING PROXIMITY SENSORS FOR GESTURE RECOGNITION
Granted: July 28, 2011
Application Number:
20110180709
A system and method for identifying a position of a moving object, utilizing a serial chain of sensors is provided. The serial chain reduces the power needed for the motion detection system, allowing implementation of the motion detection system on a low-power computing device, such as a microcontroller. The serial chain can provide automatic address assignment without dedicated pins. The serial chain can also provide automatic sequencing of access to a shared LED. The serial chain can…
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR HIGH PRECISION CURRENT SENSING
Granted: July 28, 2011
Application Number:
20110181253
An apparatus for sensing an input current through an inductor includes an RC circuit connected in parallel with the inductor across first and second input pins of an integrated circuit. A voltage monitoring circuit monitors a first voltage at the first input pin of the integrated circuit and monitors a second voltage at the second input pin of the integrated circuit. An op-amp compares the first voltage with the second voltage and generates a control output responsive to the comparison.…
DIRECT CURRENT (DC) CORRECTION CIRCUIT FOR A TIME OF FLIGHT (TOF) PHOTODIODE FRONT END
Granted: July 28, 2011
Application Number:
20110181254
A system and method that compensates for the effects of ambient light in a time of flight (TOF) sensor front end is provided. Moreover, a direct current (DC) correction loop is utilized at the front end, which removes a DC component from a current generated by the TOF sensor and accordingly prevents saturating the front end. The DC correction loop attenuates the DC component without adding significant thermal noise at a modulation frequency and provides a corrected signal to the front…
DISTANCE SENSING BY IQ DOMAIN DIFFERENTIATION OF TIME OF FLIGHT (TOF) MEASUREMENTS
Granted: July 28, 2011
Application Number:
20110181861
A system and method for identifying a position of a moving object, regardless of static objects present in the optical field of an active infrared (IR) proximity detector, is provided. Moreover, a modulated light emitting diode (LED) signal is captured and processed through I/Q demodulation. Specifically, the reflections received at an IR sensor are demodulated to generate in-phase (I) and quadrature phase (Q) signals and the derivative of I/Q signals is obtained to isolate motion. For…
AUTOMATIC CALIBRATION TECHNIQUE FOR TIME OF FLIGHT (TOF) TRANSCEIVERS
Granted: July 28, 2011
Application Number:
20110181892
A system and method for automatically calibrating a Time-of-Flight (TOF) transceiver system for proximity/motion detection, is provided. Moreover, the system comprises a component that senses a signal (e.g., current or voltage) at an light emitting diode (LED), an attenuator, a signal injector at a sensor and a switching circuit that toggles between a normal mode (e.g., when signal from the sensor is input to the sensor front end) and a calibration mode (e.g., when signal from the…
FLASH MEMORY ARRAY OF FLOATING GATE-BASED NON-VOLATILE MEMORY CELLS
Granted: July 28, 2011
Application Number:
20110182126
A flash memory array comprises a plurality of memory cells organized in a matrix of rows and columns. Each of the memory cells includes a floating gate memory transistor having a source region and a drain region, and a coupling capacitor electrically connected to the memory transistor. A plurality of word lines are each electrically connected to the capacitor in each of the memory cells in a respective row. A first set of bit lines are each electrically connected to the drain region of…
GESTURE RECOGNITION WITH PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANAYSIS
Granted: July 28, 2011
Application Number:
20110182519
A system and method for identifying a position of a moving object, utilizing sensors arranged in any arbitrary configuration, is provided. A pre-processing method is applied to permit implementation on a low power computing device, such as a microcontroller. The preprocessing creates a set of training data corresponding to different gestures, based on different positions of moving objects. Accordingly, utilizing the training data, different types of gestures can be classified by…
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROJECTOR LIGHT BEAM ALIGNMENT
Granted: July 21, 2011
Application Number:
20110176069
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to circuits, systems and methods that can be used to detect light beam misalignment, so that compensation for such misalignment can be performed. In accordance with an embodiment, a circuit includes a photo-detector (PD) having a plurality of electrically isolated PD segments. Additionally, the circuit has circuitry, including switches, configured to control how currents indicative of light detected by the plurality of electrically…
METHOD OF MANUFACTURING A JUNCTION BARRIER SCHOTTKY DIODE WITH DUAL SILICIDES
Granted: July 21, 2011
Application Number:
20110177684
An integrated circuit, including a junction barrier Schottky diode, has an N type well, a P-type anode region in the surface of the well, and an N-type Schottky region in the surface of the well and horizontally abutting the anode region. A first silicide layer is on and makes a Schottky contact to the Schottky region and is on an adjoining anode region. A second silicide layer of a different material than the first silicide is on the anode region. An ohmic contact is made to the second…
MULTIPLE TIME PROGRAMMABLE (MTP) PMOS FLOATING GATE-BASED NON-VOLATILE MEMORY DEVICE FOR A GENERAL PURPOSE CMOS TECHNOLOGY WITH THICK GATE OXIDE
Granted: July 21, 2011
Application Number:
20110176368
A multiple time programmable (MTP) memory cell, in accordance with an embodiment, includes a floating gate PMOS transistor, a high voltage NMOS transistor, and an n-well capacitor. The floating gate PMOS transistor includes a source that forms a first terminal of the memory cell, a drain and a gate. The high voltage NMOS transistor includes a source connected to ground, an extended drain connected to the drain of the PMOS transistor, and a gate forming a second terminal of the memory…
ANALOG SWITCH WITH INTERNAL DEVICE BODY CONTROL
Granted: July 21, 2011
Application Number:
20110175669
A body control apparatus for an analog switch for minimizing leakage current and keeping PN junctions reverse-biased. The analog switch has first and second switch device clusters coupled between input and output nodes and controlled by a control input, each having a corresponding body junction. The body control apparatus includes body control devices each controlled by one of the input and output nodes for coupling a body junction to the opposite one of the input and output nodes. Each…
DC-DC CONVERTERS HAVING IMPROVED CURRENT SENSING AND RELATED METHODS
Granted: July 14, 2011
Application Number:
20110169472
A DC-DC converter includes a chip including an error amplifier and a pulse width modulator (PWM) having an input connected to an output of the error amplifier, and an inductor driven by said PWM in series with an output node (VOUT) of the converter, wherein a load current flows through the inductor. VOUT is fed back through a network including a feedback resistor (RFB) to an inverting input of the error amplifier. A circuit for sensing the load current includes a first operational…
SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO REDUCE IDLE CHANNEL CURRENT AND NOISE FLOOR IN A PWM AMPLIFIER
Granted: July 14, 2011
Application Number:
20110170709
Systems and methods provided herein decrease an idle channel noise floor and reduce power during an idle channel input for low power audio devices that include a digital pulse width modulation (PWM) amplifier having a noise shaper. An audio data signal is monitored for an idle channel condition. The noise shaper performs quantization of the audio data signal and uses noise shaper filter coefficients to shape noise resulting from the quantization. Predetermined values for the noise shaper…
STACKED POWER CONVERTER STRUCTURE AND METHOD
Granted: July 7, 2011
Application Number:
20110163434
A power converter can include an output circuit having a high-side device and a low-side device which can be formed on a single die (a “PowerDie”). The power converter can further include a controller integrated circuit (IC) formed on a different die which can be electrically coupled to, and co-packaged with, the PowerDie. The PowerDie can be attached to a die pad of a leadframe, and the controller IC die can be attached to an active surface of the first die such that the first die…
THRESHOLD VOLTAGE MONITORING AND CONTROL IN SYNCHRONOUS POWER CONVERTERS
Granted: July 7, 2011
Application Number:
20110163731
A method of providing threshold voltage monitoring and control in synchronous power converters is provided. The method includes establishing a threshold voltage level for at least one of a gate drive voltage for an upper and a lower power switch in a synchronous power converter, each threshold voltage level controlling a switching delay time for one of the upper and lower power switches. The method further includes detecting body diode conduction levels for at least one of the upper and…
ENABLE PIN USING PROGRAMMABLE HYSTERESIS IMPROVEMENT
Granted: June 30, 2011
Application Number:
20110156787
An apparatus for providing programmable hysteresis control using an enable pin of a device is disclosed. An enable pin is configured to receive an input signal to enable and disable an associated device responsive to the input signal. A current sink is attached to the enable pin and is responsive to circuitry that disables the current sink responsive to application of the input signal at a first voltage level and enables the current sink responsive to application of the input signal at a…
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PARTITIONED COLOR, DOUBLE RATE VIDEO TRANSFER
Granted: June 30, 2011
Application Number:
20110157485
Systems, methods and devices provide for fast and power efficient transfer of three color data words (e.g., a M-bit red color word, a M bit green color word and a M-bit blue color word) per pixel from a controller to a laser diode driver (LDD). First and second transfer words are produced based on the three color data words. The first transfer word is transferred from the controller to the LDD and stored at LDD in response to a low-to-high portion of a cycle of a data transfer clock, and…
BIDIRECTIONAL SIGNAL CONVERSION
Granted: June 23, 2011
Application Number:
20110149610
An embodiment of a multidirectional signal converter includes first and second converter nodes, a transformer, and first and second stages. The transformer includes first and second windings, and the first stage is coupled between the first converter node and the first winding of the transformer. The second stage includes a first node coupled to the second converter node, a second node coupled to a node of the second winding of the transformer, and a filter node, is operable as a boost…
