Model-based battery fuel gauges and methods
Granted: June 12, 2012
Patent Number:
8198863
Model-based battery fuel gauges that connect across a rechargeable battery and track the per-cent state of charge of the battery. The model based fuel gauges provide a measure of the open terminal voltage of a battery, even when the battery is powering a load, to provide the state of charge information. Analog and digital implementations of the battery model fuel gauges may be used, and incorporated into a battery powered device in various ways, including constantly powered…
Vertical MOSFET with through-body via for gate
Granted: May 29, 2012
Patent Number:
8188541
In an embodiment, set forth by way of example and not limitation, a MOSFET power chip includes a first vertical MOSFET and a second vertical MOSFET. The first vertical MOSFET includes a semiconductor body having a first surface defining a source and a second surface defining a drain and a gate structure formed in the semiconductor body near the second surface. A via is formed within the semiconductor body and is substantially perpendicular to the first surface and the second surface. The…
High current fast rise and fall time LED driver
Granted: May 29, 2012
Patent Number:
8188682
The present invention contemplates a variety of improved techniques for the fast switching of current through, among others, LED loads. A current shunting device is utilized to divert current away from a load at high speed when activated, thus enabling the control of the amount current that flows through the load.
Method and apparatus for sensing capacitance value and converting it into digital format
Granted: May 29, 2012
Patent Number:
8188754
A capacitive sensing system are configured to sense a capacitance value and convert the sensed capacitance value to a digital format. The capacitive sensing system provides good selectivity and immunity to noise and interference, which can be further enhanced by enabling spread spectrum excitation. In some embodiments, the capacitive sensing system utilizes a sinusoidal excitation signal that results in low electromagnetic emissions, limited to narrow frequency band. In some embodiments,…
Electrostatic MEMS driver with on-chip capacitance measurement for autofocus applications
Granted: May 29, 2012
Patent Number:
8188755
A driver and capacitance measuring circuit includes a voltage source that selectively generates an output voltage at a first node during a driver mode to alter a capacitance of a device that is connected to the first node and that has a variable capacitance. A current source selectively provides one of a charging and discharging current at the first node during a measurement mode. A capacitance calculating circuit samples a voltage at the first node during the measurement node,…
Methods and systems for digital pulse width modulator
Granted: May 22, 2012
Patent Number:
8183902
In one embodiment, the digital pulse width modulator of these teachings includes comparators and a number of phases and capable of increasing resolution without increasing clock frequency. In another embodiment, the digital pulse width modulator (DPWM) of these teachings includes equality comparators and a number of phases and increases resolution without increasing clock frequency. A further embodiment of the system of these teachings includes a priority encoded comparator component (in…
Current-feedback instrumentation amplifiers
Granted: May 15, 2012
Patent Number:
8179195
Current-feedback instrumentation amplifiers that include dynamic element matching for the input transconductance amplifiers by periodically swapping the transconductance amplifiers between the instrumentation amplifier input and the feedback input. The instrumentation amplifiers may include a gain error reduction loop, which loop corrects differences in the gains of the input transconductance amplifiers and eliminates the ripple in the instrumentation amplifier output caused by the…
Multi-transceiver RFID reader system with centralized control and frequency source
Granted: May 8, 2012
Patent Number:
8174363
Embodiments of the present invention provide RFID systems having a centralized frequency source and controller. The centralized frequency source generates a reference signal, having a frequency below the RF band of interest, which is transmitted to a plurality of reader nodes. The centralized controller generates and transmits data to the plurality of reader nodes. At each reader node, the reference signal is converted to an RF carrier signal that is modulated and transmitted within…
Methods and/or apparatus for implementing rate distortion optimization in video compression
Granted: May 8, 2012
Patent Number:
8175150
An apparatus comprising a first circuit, a second circuit and a third circuit. The first circuit may be configured to determine one or more signal characteristics in a portion of an input video signal. The second circuit may be configured to select a multiplier value from a plurality of multiplier values in response to the signal characteristics. The third circuit may be configured to generate an encoded bitstream in response to (i) the input video signal and (ii) the selected multiplier…
Systems and methods for adaptive echo cancellation
Granted: May 8, 2012
Patent Number:
8175261
An echo canceller comprises foreground and background filters. The background filter locates and confirms peaks, defines active regions centered about the confirmed peaks and updates coefficients of the foreground filter when the background filter is more effective than the foreground filter. A method for improved adaptive echo cancellation comprises configuring a foreground filter, calculating an echo-return loss responsive to the foreground filter, identifying the location of one or…
Methods and systems for control of switches in power regulators/power amplifiers
Granted: April 24, 2012
Patent Number:
8164320
A system includes a first switch connected to a voltage input and a switching node. A second switch is connected to the switching node and a reference potential. A first circuit generates first rising edges and first falling edges by comparing a voltage at the switching node to a first voltage reference. The first voltage reference is between the reference potential and the voltage input. A second circuit generates second rising edges and second falling edges by comparing the switching…
Memory word array organization and prediction combination for memory access
Granted: April 24, 2012
Patent Number:
8165219
Described systems and methods allow a reduction in the memory bandwidth required in video coding (decoding/encoding) applications. According to a first aspect, the data assigned to each memory word is chosen to correspond to a 2D subarray of a larger array such as a macroblock. An array memory word organization allows reducing both the average and worst-case bandwidth required to retrieve predictions from memory in video coding applications, particularly for memory word sizes (memory bus…
Robust wideband symbol and frame synchronizer for power-line communication
Granted: April 24, 2012
Patent Number:
8165172
An embodiment is a method and apparatus to perform symbol synchronization. A sign element obtains signs of samples in a sample vector. A correlation estimator computes a correlation of the sample vector. A synchronization detector detects symbol synchronization. Another embodiment is a method and apparatus to perform frame synchronization. A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) processing unit computes a current FFT vector and an accumulated previous FFT vector. The current FFT vector and the…
Inductor current measurement for DC to DC converters
Granted: April 17, 2012
Patent Number:
8159205
A system includes an averaging module, a high pass filter module, a first estimation module, a sensing module, and a combining module. The averaging module receives an output voltage of a power supply and that generates an average output voltage. The high pass filter module receives an average switching voltage used to control switches in an output stage of the power supply and filters a difference between the average output voltage and the average switching voltage. The estimation…
Methods to relax the second order intercept point of transceivers
Granted: April 3, 2012
Patent Number:
8149902
Methods to relax the second order intercept point of transceivers for multi-carrier and OFDM (such as IEEE 802.11a/g and 802.16) based zero IF wireless receivers that need to work in an environment with strong jamming signals, such as, for example, WLAN modules in Smart Phones. Due to the poor IP2 of WLAN (wireless local area network) receivers, unacceptable DC signals are produced in the I,Q quadrature paths when a strong out-of-band signal is received, e.g., from a co-located GSM…
Video encoding control using non-exclusive content categories
Granted: April 3, 2012
Patent Number:
8149909
In some embodiments, macroblock-level encoding parameters are assigned to weighted Linear combinations of corresponding content-category-level encoding parameters. A macroblock quantization parameter (QP) modulation is set to a weighted linear combination of content category QP modulations. Content categories may identify potentially overlapping content types. The combination weights may be similarity measures describing macroblock similarities to content categories. A macroblock may be…
Method and/or apparatus for multiple pass digital image stabilization
Granted: April 3, 2012
Patent Number:
8149911
An apparatus including a first circuit and a second circuit. The first circuit may be configured to generate (i) a first series of sequential frames, (ii) a plurality of local motion vectors for each of said frames, (iii) one or more global motion vectors for each of said frames, (iv) a second series of stabilized sequential frames, (v) a plurality of rough motion vectors and (vi) a digital bitstream in response to (i) a video input signal. The second circuit may be configured to store…
Combined dual feed-forward and feedback analog and digital automatic gain control for broadband communication
Granted: April 3, 2012
Patent Number:
8149967
An embodiment is a method and apparatus to process an input signal. An analog automatic gain control (AGC) processor controls an analog adjustable gain of the input signal using a feedback mechanism. The analog AGC processor generates a first signal. A processing circuit transforms the first signal into a second signal. A digital AGC processor controls a digital adjustable gain of the second signal using a feed-forward mechanism.
Electronically tuned agile integrated bandpass filter
Granted: April 3, 2012
Patent Number:
8150362
A method and apparatus for an electronically tuned agile integrated bandpass filter is described. In one embodiment, the invention is an intermediate frequency filter for use in an integrated circuit. The filter includes a first filter stage, including a first LC resonator. The first filter stage further includes a first adjustable capacitor array coupled to the first LC resonator. The first adjustable capacitor array has an effective capacitance value adjustable through use of a first…
Switch-mode power supply (SMPS) controller integrated circuit determining operating characteristics from filter component information
Granted: March 27, 2012
Patent Number:
8143874
A switch-mode power supply (SMPS) controller integrated circuit (IC) provides ease of integration and SMPS designs. Value and/or types of components external to the controller IC that affect the SMPS control loop response are provided to the IC and an internal conversion block determines coefficients for a digital compensator in conformity with the provided value/type information. The conversion block may be a look-up table, processor or dedicated logic, and the component value/type…
