Maxim Integrated Patent Grants

Identifying hover and/or palm input and rejecting spurious input for a touch panel

Granted: July 14, 2015
Patent Number: 9081450
A touch panel controller may include a communications module configured to receive pixel values, where each pixel value represents a capacitance associated with a pixel formed at a drive electrode and a sensor electrode of a touch panel. The touch panel controller may also include a processing module configured to discard pixel values below a noise threshold, discard pixel values for non-zero pixels that are not adjacent to non-zero pixels, reject detected input for pixel values…

Optimal compensating ramp generator for fixed frequency current mode DC-DC converters

Granted: July 14, 2015
Patent Number: 9081403
Systems and methods for generating a compensating ramp for a DC-DC converter having fixed frequency current mode control architecture are adaptive to an input voltage of the converter and an output voltage of the converter, and are programmable based on an inductor of the converter. The systems and methods include receiving the input voltage and the output voltage of the converter and outputting, based on the input voltage and the output voltage, a voltage reference or a current…

Full-duplex differential serial link interface for data transferring

Granted: July 7, 2015
Patent Number: 9077527
A data transmission technique where high speed data is transmitted differentially in a forward channel by way of a serial link, and relatively low speed data is differentially modulated onto the forward channel signal for transmission in a reverse channel via the link. By utilizing differential modulation in both forward and reverse channels, the resulting signal has a common mode voltage that is substantially constant, resulting in low EM!. The spectral content of the signal associated…

MDAC with differential current cancellation

Granted: July 7, 2015
Patent Number: 9077356
Various embodiments of the invention provide for cancellation of a residue amplifier output charging current at the reference voltage source of the reference buffer thereby preventing the charging current from altering the effective reference voltage of a reference buffer. In certain embodiments, current cancellation is accomplished by subtracting a current of the same magnitude.

Fractional clock generator

Granted: July 7, 2015
Patent Number: 9077348
Various embodiments of the invention allow the generation of an output clock signal that comprises a frequency that is a fractional frequency of an input clock signal and is adjusted with respect to an input signal. A fractional clock generator that has high performance output, low power consumption, small area, and good jitter performance is presented.

Harmonic distortion reduction in continuous time filters

Granted: July 7, 2015
Patent Number: 9077331
An integrated circuit (IC) includes first and second circuits. The first circuit is manufactured using a process, has an input and an output, and has a first nonlinearity. The second circuit is manufactured using the process, has a first terminal connected to the output of the first circuit and a second terminal connected to the input of the first circuit, and has a second nonlinearity. The second nonlinearity (i) is equal and opposite to the first nonlinearity and (ii) cancels the first…

System and method for interfacing applications processor to touchscreen display for reduced data transfer

Granted: July 7, 2015
Patent Number: 9075457
System and method for substantially reducing an involvement of an applications processor in receiving data from a touchscreen display. In one aspect, the system includes a controller may be configured in an autonomous mode where it automatically measures the touchscreen display based configuration information received from the applications processor, determines notable events based on the measurement data, stores data and event identifiers related to the notable events in a memory, and…

Gesture detection and compact representation thereof

Granted: July 7, 2015
Patent Number: 9075443
Techniques are described that may be implemented with an electronic device to detect a gesture within a field of view of a sensor and generate a compact data representation of the detected gesture. In implementations, a sensor is configured to detect a gesture and provide a signal in response thereto. An estimator, which is in communication with the sensor, is configured to generate an elliptical representation of the gesture. Multiple coefficients for the compact representation of the…

Strapped dual-gate VDMOS device

Granted: June 30, 2015
Patent Number: 9070714
Semiconductor devices are described that include a dual-gate configuration. In one or more implementations, the semiconductor devices include a substrate having a first surface and a second surface. The substrate includes a first and a second body region formed proximal to the first surface. Moreover, each body region includes a source region formed therein. The substrate further includes a drain region formed proximal to the second surface and an epitaxial region that is configured to…

Impulse noise detection and cancellation in power line communication device

Granted: June 23, 2015
Patent Number: 9064388
A receiver for a power line communication (PLC) device includes an analog front end configured to receive an input signal from a power line. The input signal includes symbols and wherein each of the symbols includes samples. A demodulator module is configured to demodulate the input signal to generate a demodulated signal. The demodulator module includes an impulse noise module configured to detect and remove impulse noise in the symbols of the input signal.

Systems and methods for capacitive digital to analog converters

Granted: June 16, 2015
Patent Number: 9059734
A capacitive digital to analog converter (DAC) includes: a first capacitor including a first terminal and a second terminal, the second terminal connected to a common node; a first switching device: including a third terminal connected to the first terminal of the first capacitor; including fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh terminals that are connected to first, second, third, and fourth reference potentials, respectively; and selectively connecting the third terminal to the fourth,…

Semiconductor device having DMOS integration

Granted: June 16, 2015
Patent Number: 9059306
Semiconductor devices that include a trench with conductive material for connecting a VDMOS device to a LDMOS device are described. The semiconductor devices include a substrate having a first region and a second region, wherein the second region is disposed on the first region. A trench extends from a top surface of the second region to the first region. The semiconductor substrate includes a VDMOS device formed proximate to the top surface of the second region and a LDMOS device that…

Method and system for quadrature error compensation

Granted: June 9, 2015
Patent Number: 9052335
Disclosed are a MEMS sensor and methods to compensate a quadrature error on the sensor. The sensor detects movements of a substrate, especially accelerations and rotation rates. At least one mass arranged on the substrate and mounted to move relative to it is driven by drive electrodes. The mass executes a movement deviating from the prescribed movement due to a quadrature error. A deflection of the mass occurring due to Coriolis force and quadrature error is detected with detection…

Load compensation for an electronic transformer in a LED illumination system

Granted: June 9, 2015
Patent Number: 9055633
The invention relates to a light emitting diode (LED) illumination system, and more particularly, to systems, devices and methods of rapidly ramping up a transformer current and a LED driver current by coupling a transformer load compensation circuitry to an output of an electronic transformer. A bridge rectifier is coupled to the electronic transformer and provides full-wave rectification to an AC supply at the output of the electronic transformer. The load compensation circuitry senses…

System and method for applying multi-tone OFDM based communications within a prescribed frequency range

Granted: June 9, 2015
Patent Number: 9054786
According to one embodiment of the invention, an integrated circuit comprises an encoding module, a modulation module and a spectral shaped module. The encoding module includes an interleaver that adapted to operate in a plurality of modes including a first mode and a second mode. The interleaver performs repetitive encoding when placed in the second mode. The modulation module is adapted to compensate for attenuations that are to be realized during propagation of a transmitted signal…

Load detection for a low power mode in an AC-DC adapter

Granted: June 9, 2015
Patent Number: 9054584
Various embodiments of the present invention relate to AC-DC adapters, and more particularly, to systems, devices and methods of employing a load detector to detect a load condition of the AC-DC adapters based on transient variation of a DC output voltage; and therefore, enable the AC-DC adapters to switch from a low power mode to a normal power mode. At the low power mode, a DC output voltage is generated at a target voltage by the AC-DC adapter, and subsequently drops at a decay rate…

Circuit topology for regulating power from low capacity battery cells

Granted: June 9, 2015
Patent Number: 9054549
A power circuit includes a voltage limited charge circuit and a linear regulator to supply high current pulses to a load while maintaining a regulated output and not discharging the battery below a predetermined level. The voltage limited charge circuit includes a low impedance transistor and an operational amplifier that are together configured as an active loop. The transistor functions as a switch, and the operational amplifier provides an adjustable control voltage that adjusts the…

Speckle reduction for laser projection displays

Granted: June 9, 2015
Patent Number: 9054488
Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a laser driver, and more particularly, to systems, devices and methods of applying low current pulses to a laser modulation current to reduce the speckling noise on the projected images.

Charge pump with a wide input supply range

Granted: June 9, 2015
Patent Number: 9052846
Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a voltage generator, and more particularly, to systems, devices and methods of configuring a charge pump system by incorporating an auxiliary charge pump to generate an intermediate voltage that is used to boost up a primary charge pump according to a level of an input supply voltage. The intermediate voltage has a higher level than that of the input supply voltage, and is provided to boost up the primary charge pump when the input…

Negative peak voltage detection for enhanced FuelGauge empty voltage prediction

Granted: June 9, 2015
Patent Number: 9052368
Negative peak voltage detection for battery end of life estimations in fuel gauging is disclosed. Battery powered devices such cell phones and laptop computers create some noise in the form of negative excursions from the average output voltage of the battery which can cause the battery powered device to stop functioning. By negative peak detection relative to the average battery voltage, the end of life or discharged voltage condition can be altered in response to the negative peaks to…