Method and system for detecting and asserting bus speed condition in a USB isolating device
Granted: December 30, 2014
Patent Number:
8924621
An apparatus and method for a Universal Serial Bus (USB) isolating device. An USB isolating device includes a downstream facing circuit and a upstream facing circuit. The downstream facing circuit is coupled to a peripheral device via a first pair of signals and is configured for detecting a speed at which the peripheral device is operating based on a first voltage configuration on the first pair of signals. The upstream facing circuit is coupled to the downstream facing circuit and a…
Common mode input control for switch capacitor amplifier in pipeline analog-to-digital converter
Granted: December 30, 2014
Patent Number:
8922275
A common mode bias circuit may include a weak common mode bias generator and a common mode bias capacitance. During a first state of the common mode bias circuit, the weak common mode bias generator may be coupled to the common mode bias capacitance and may impart to them a predefined common mode signal level. During a second state of the common mode bias circuit, the common mode bias capacitance may be coupled to differential inputs of an amplifier in a manner that establishes an input…
Stacked interposer leadframes
Granted: December 30, 2014
Patent Number:
8921159
A method of manufacturing integrated circuit (IC) devices includes the steps of providing a first frame that has openings each having a perimeter with shaped notches, placing a first die in at least one of the openings, and placing a second frame over the first frame. The second frame has a first partial dam bar with a first shaped tip that fits into a first shaped notch of the first frame. The method also includes the step of placing a third frame over the second frame. The third frame…
Accurate current sensing with heat transfer correction
Granted: December 30, 2014
Patent Number:
8920026
In one embodiment, a current sensing circuit corrects for the transient and steady state temperature measurement errors due to physical separation between a resistive sense element and a temperature sensor. The sense element has a temperature coefficient of resistance. The voltage across the sense element and a temperature signal from the temperature sensor are received by processing circuitry. The processing circuitry determines a power dissipated by the sense element, which may be…
Switching scheme for step up-step down converters using fixed frequency current-mode control
Granted: December 16, 2014
Patent Number:
8912779
Novel circuitry and methodology for controlling a step up-step down switching regulator that produces a regulated output signal at an output node in response to an input signal at an input node, and has an inductive device, a plurality of switching circuits for providing connection of the inductive device to the input and output nodes and a ground node, and a switch control circuit for driving the switching devices so as to enable the power supply system to operate in a boost mode to…
Configurable serial interface
Granted: December 9, 2014
Patent Number:
8909841
Method and system for configuring a serial interface. The system includes one or more input nodes each coupled to a corresponding serial bus. One or more output nodes are coupled to a respective serial bus, each output node having a respective driver. A voltage detection circuit determines the voltage at a configuration node. Mode of serial bus operation is based on the voltage level detected at the configuration node. In at least one mode of serial bus operation, the configuration node…
Isolated communications interface
Granted: December 9, 2014
Patent Number:
8908779
A method and interface for serial communication is provided. The interface includes a differential input/output having a first node and a second node. There are several input/output nodes arranged to receive serial interface signals. The interface includes a transmitter configured to drive a twisted pair cable at the differential input/output. There is a receiver coupled to the differential input/output that includes a window comparator. A serial port control unit provides serial data to…
Isolated high voltage sampling network
Granted: December 9, 2014
Patent Number:
8907703
Methods and systems for sampling a differential signal. The sampling circuit includes a differential input and a differential output. A logic control block, which is powered by VDD and VSS sources, controls the state of switches used to sample and store differential signals. The logic control block is AC coupled to the switches. The sampling circuit is configured to sample a common mode voltage at the differential input of a level that exceeds that of the VDD and VSS sources.
Voltage and current regulators with switched output capacitors for multiple regulation states
Granted: December 2, 2014
Patent Number:
8901904
A device and method of providing any one of a plurality of desired levels of a regulated signal output to a load is described, wherein each desired level is a function of a corresponding reference signal. The device is configured and the method is designed to (1) store each desired level of the regulated signal output on a switchable storage device; and (2) selectively switch the correct storage device to the output when switching from one regulated state to another so as to establish…
Balun mixer circuits
Granted: December 2, 2014
Patent Number:
8901988
A single-balanced balun mixer circuit includes a balun with a center tap connected to a differential pair with a tail resistor. The balun receives a first input signal and a second signal at the single-ended input terminal and the center tap, respectively. Such a balun mixer may be used as an up-converter mixer by supplying a baseband or intermediate signal at the center tap and a local oscillator (LO) signal at the single-ended input terminal.
Bipolar isolated high voltage sampling network
Granted: November 18, 2014
Patent Number:
8890577
A method and a circuit achieve fully isolated sampling of bipolar differential voltage signals. The isolated sampling network is suitable for applications in which sampling signals far outside of the supply voltages are desired. A sampling network of the present invention may sample a differential signal between voltages ?VDSMAX and VDSMAX, even with common mode voltages that exceed the supply voltage (e.g., an input stage of an ADC). The bipolar isolated input sampling network may…
Interface circuit for driving fully-differential circuits
Granted: November 4, 2014
Patent Number:
8878587
An interface circuit for driving a fully-differential circuit has a first circuit configured to decrease the voltage at its output in response to an increase in an average value of first and second input voltages. A first network receives the first input voltage and the output voltage of the first circuit to provide a first output voltage for driving the fully-differential circuit. A second network receives the second input voltage and the output voltage of the first circuit to provide a…
Isolated flyback converter with sleep mode for light load operation
Granted: October 28, 2014
Patent Number:
8873254
A flyback converter uses primary side sensing to sense the output voltage for regulation feedback. A comparator on the primary side detects whether the output voltage has exceeded a predetermined regulated voltage by a first threshold to detect an over-voltage condition, resulting from a current generated by the converter exceeding the load current. Triggering of the comparator causes the converter to enter a non-switching sleep mode, whereby the output voltage droops over a period of…
Translinear slew boost circuit for operational amplifier
Granted: October 21, 2014
Patent Number:
8866554
A method of improving the slew rate of an amplifier is described where a differential pair of transistors receives a differential first control signal and second control signal. The tail current for the transistors is provided by a tail current regulator. The same control signals are applied to a slew boost controller, whose output increases as the differential between the control signals increase. The tail current regulator generates a bias signal that sets a minimum tail current. The…
Output stage with fast feedback for driving ADC
Granted: October 21, 2014
Patent Number:
8866553
A driver for an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) has an overall feedback loop between its input and its output for maintaining overall accuracy, and a much faster feedback loop in its output stage that quickly compensates for output transients before the overall feedback loop can substantially react to the transients. Output voltage transients are created by the intermittent capacitive load of the ADC. The fast feedback loop can be made very fast since there are only a few components in…
Method and system for voltage independent power supply load sharing
Granted: October 7, 2014
Patent Number:
8853885
An apparatus and method for load sharing among N current supplies, where N>1. N current supply paths are coupled to corresponding N independent power sources, respectively. A system load is coupled to the outputs of the N current supply paths to receive N current supplies. There is a common current share bus configured to connect to the N current supply paths to provide a common current share signal, used to indicate the current contribution needed from each of the N current supply…
Leakage compensation for switched capacitor integrators
Granted: September 23, 2014
Patent Number:
8841962
Methods and systems for a differential correlated double sampling (CDS) switched capacitor integrator circuit. The circuit includes a differential amplifier that has a differential input and a differential output. There is a first feedback path between the negative output node and the positive input node, and a second feedback path between the positive output node and the negative input node. Each feedback path includes an integration capacitor and at least one switch that has a…
Common-mode data transmission for power over ethernet system
Granted: September 9, 2014
Patent Number:
8831211
Circuitry and methodology for providing data transmission in a Power over Ethernet (PoE) system having a Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE) for providing power to a PoE link, and a Powered Device (PD) coupled to the PoE link for receiving the power from the PSE. The PSE and PD support data communication with each other in a common mode between two pairs of lines in an Ethernet twisted pair cable.
Magnetic field cancellation in switching regulators
Granted: September 2, 2014
Patent Number:
8823345
This invention uses new switching regulator structures to split single magnetic loops into multiple magnetic loops, with linked opposing magnetic fields, to cause a cancelling effect, resulting in a much lower overall magnetic field. This results in lower EMI. In one embodiment, synchronously switched transistors are divided up into parallel topside transistors and parallel bottomside transistors. The topside transistors are positioned to oppose the bottomside transistors, and bypass…
Switching power supply having separate AC and DC current sensing paths
Granted: September 2, 2014
Patent Number:
8823352
In a current mode controlled switching power supply, current through the inductor is sensed to determine when to turn off or on the switching transistors. The inductor current has a higher frequency AC component and a lower frequency DC component. The AC current feedback path, sensing the ramping ripple current, is separate from the DC current path, sensing the lower frequency average current. Separating the current sensing paths allows the signal to noise ratio of the AC sense signal to…
