Pressure sensor with high stability
Granted: November 12, 2024
Patent Number:
12140489
A pressure sensor comprises a polysilicon sensing membrane. The pressure sensor further includes one or more polysilicon electrodes disposed over a silicon substrate. The sensor also includes one or more polysilicon routing layers that electrically connects electrodes of the one or more polysilicon electrodes to one another, wherein the polysilicon sensing membrane deforms responsive to a stimuli and changes a capacitance between the polysilicon sensing membrane and the one or more…
Pressure sensor with high stability
Granted: November 12, 2024
Patent Number:
12139398
A method includes depositing a passivation layer on a substrate; depositing and patterning a first polysilicon layer on the passivation layer; depositing and patterning a first oxide layer on the first polysilicon layer forming a patterned first oxide layer; depositing and patterning a second polysilicon layer on the patterned first oxide layer. A portion of the second polysilicon layer directly contacts a portion of the first polysilicon layer. A portion of the patterned second…
Selective self-assembled monolayer patterning with sacrificial layer for devices
Granted: November 12, 2024
Patent Number:
12139397
Selective self-assembled monolayer patterning with sacrificial layer for devices is provided herein. A sensor device can include a handle layer and a device layer that comprises a first side and a second side. First portions of the first side are operatively connected to defined portions of the handle layer. At least one area of the second side comprises an anti-stiction area formed with an anti-stiction coating. The device can also include a Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor…
Microphone with flexible performance
Granted: November 5, 2024
Patent Number:
12136904
Disclosed embodiments provide flexible performance, high dynamic range, microelectromechanical (MEMS) multipath digital microphones, which allow seamless, low latency transitions between audio signal paths without audible artifacts over interruptions in the audio output signal. Disclosed embodiments facilitate performance and power saving mode transitions maintaining high dynamic range capability.
Reduced light reflection package
Granted: October 29, 2024
Patent Number:
12133049
A MEMS sensor includes a through hole to allow communication with an external environment, such as to send or receive acoustic signals or to be exposed to the ambient environment. In addition to the information that is being measured, light energy may also enter the environment of the sensor via the through hole, causing short-term or long-term effects on measurements or system components. A light mitigating structure is formed on or attached to a lid of the MEMS die to absorb or…
Transmitter charge sharing in a differential ultrasonic transducer
Granted: September 24, 2024
Patent Number:
12097533
An ultrasonic transducer device comprises a controller and a differential piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer with a membrane later, a bottom electrode layer, a piezoelectric layer, and a top electrode layer comprising a first electrode with a positive voltage to displacement coefficient and a second electrode with a negative voltage to displacement coefficient. During a first period, the controller electrically decouples a first output of a first driver from the first…
Revising an unstable location fingerprint database for an area
Granted: August 20, 2024
Patent Number:
12069536
In a method of revising an unstable location fingerprint database for an area, a plurality of initial location fingerprint databases, comprising at least a stable location fingerprint database and an unstable location fingerprint database, are accessed. Signal measurement data is collected together with motion-based data from each of a plurality of portable devices transiting a portion of the area of the unstable location fingerprint database. Reference positions associated with…
Microphone with flexible performance
Granted: August 20, 2024
Patent Number:
12069430
Disclosed embodiments provide flexible performance, high dynamic range, microelectromechanical (MEMS) multipath digital microphones, which allow seamless, low latency transitions between audio signal paths without audible artifacts over interruptions in the audio output signal. Disclosed embodiments facilitate performance and power saving mode transitions maintaining high dynamic range capability.
Multi-temperature gas sensing
Granted: July 23, 2024
Patent Number:
12044644
A gas sensor includes a plurality of sensing resistors that vary in resistance based on ambient temperature and the presence of certain gases, such as CO2 and H2O. The responses of each of the sensing resistors vary based on a base temperature of each of the sensing resistors. The base temperatures for each of the sensing resistors and configurations of the sensing resistors are selected to emphasize a response to a gas of interest (e.g., CO2) while de-emphasizing or canceling…
Capacitance gap measurement
Granted: June 25, 2024
Patent Number:
12017907
A microelectromechanical system (MEMS) test structure includes a plurality of capacitors formed from sense electrodes and capacitive plates having a predetermined geometry and size associated with a related MEMS device such as a MEMS sensor. Based on the predetermined relationships between the capacitors of the test structure, and between the test structure and the MEMS devices, an effect of fringing fields on the sensed capacitances of the MEMS devices may be eliminated, and the…
Surface type detection
Granted: June 18, 2024
Patent Number:
12013371
A robotic cleaning appliance includes a sonic transducer and a processor coupled with a housing. The sonic transducer transmits sonic signals toward a surface within its ringdown distance and receives corresponding returned signals. Following cessation of the sonic signals, the processor samples the ringdown signal generated by the sonic transducer during an early portion before the corresponding returned signals have reflected back to the sonic transducer, and during a later portion…
Techniques for alternate pressure equalization of a sensor
Granted: June 18, 2024
Patent Number:
12013282
An alternate venting path can be employed in a sensor device for pressure equalization. A sensor component of the device can comprise a diaphragm component and/or backplate component disposed over an acoustic port of the device. The diaphragm component can be formed with no holes to prevent liquid or particles from entering a back cavity of the device, or gap between the diaphragm component and backplate component. A venting port can be formed in the device to create an alternate venting…
Operating a fingerprint sensor comprised of ultrasonic transducers
Granted: June 4, 2024
Patent Number:
12002282
In a method for operating a fingerprint sensor including a plurality of ultrasonic transducers, receiving a plurality of images corresponding to different subsets of the ultrasonic transducers of the fingerprint sensor are received, wherein the plurality of images are non-adjacent. For each image of the plurality of images, it is determined whether the image of the plurality of images is indicative of a fingerprint. Provided a number of images of the plurality of images that are…
Incremental analog to digital converter incorporating noise shaping and residual error quantization
Granted: May 21, 2024
Patent Number:
11990917
The present invention relates to an incremental analog to digital converter incorporating noise shaping and residual error quantization. In one embodiment, a circuit includes an incremental analog to digital converter, comprising a loop filter that filters an analog input signal in response to receiving a reset signal, resulting in a filtered analog input signal, and a successive approximation register (SAR) quantizer, coupled with the filtered analog input signal, that converts the…
Low power always-on microphone using power reduction techniques
Granted: April 9, 2024
Patent Number:
11955993
An audio activity detector device is disclosed. The audio activity detector device comprises a closed loop feedback regulating circuit that supplies an input signal representative of a time-varying voltage signal to a quantizer circuit, wherein the quantizer circuit, as a function of the input signal, converts the input signal to a quantizer discrete-time signal; a first circuit that, as a function of the discrete-time signal, determines a key quantizer statistic value for the quantizer…
Modification to rough polysilicon using ion implantation and silicide
Granted: April 9, 2024
Patent Number:
11952267
A modification to rough polysilicon using ion implantation and silicide is provided herein. A method can comprise depositing a hard mask on a single crystal silicon, patterning the hard mask, and depositing metal on the single crystal silicon. The method also can comprise forming silicide based on causing the metal to react with exposed silicon of the single crystal silicon. Further, the method can comprise removing unreacted metal and stripping the hard mask from the single crystal…
Systems and methods for providing getters in microelectromechanical systems
Granted: April 2, 2024
Patent Number:
11945713
Systems and methods are provided that provide a getter in a micromechanical system. In some embodiments, a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) is bonded to a substrate. The MEMS and the substrate have a first cavity and a second cavity therebetween. A first getter is provided on the substrate in the first cavity and integrated with an electrode. A second getter is provided in the first cavity over a passivation layer on the substrate. In some embodiments, the first cavity is a gyroscope…
Method for tuning the resonant frequency of a piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer
Granted: March 26, 2024
Patent Number:
11938515
The teachings of the present disclosure enable the manufacture of one or more piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUTs) having a resonant frequency of a specific target value and/or substantially matched resonant frequencies. In accordance with the present disclosure, a flexible membrane of a PMUT is modified to impart a desired parameter profile for stiffness and/or mass to tune its resonant frequency to a target value. The desired parameter profile is achieved by…
Sensor output digitizer
Granted: March 19, 2024
Patent Number:
11933648
The described technology is generally directed towards a sensor output digitizer. The sensor output digitizer can comprise a multiplexer stage, a multi-stage analog to digital converter, and a digital output combiner. The multiplexer stage can be configured to sequentially select sensor outputs from one or more sensors, resulting in a stream of selected sensor outputs. The multi-stage analog to digital converter can be coupled with the multiplexer stage, and can be configured to convert…
HW programmable signal path event-based DSP for sensor mixed signal devices
Granted: March 12, 2024
Patent Number:
11928507
A hardware-programmable digital signal path component for processing events from sensor mixed signal devices. A system includes a mixed signal component and a reconfigurable signal path component. The mixed signal component includes a group of sensor devices and generates one or more events from among the group of sensor devices. The signal path component receives the event(s), and includes a control unit component and a digital signal processor (DSP) component. The control unit…
