Electret microphone detection using a current source
Granted: November 22, 2011
Patent Number:
8064613
The coupling of an electret microphone is detected and identifying whether there is monaural or stereo speakers coupled to the USB connector is accomplished by coupling a current source to the USB ID terminal and detecting the voltage on the ID terminal. If the voltage on the ID line is substantially below the voltage associated with any other accessory when an electret microphone is coupled between the ID terminal and the ground terminal, and a microphone bias resistor is coupled to the…
Preventing access to stub traces on an integrated circuit package
Granted: November 1, 2011
Patent Number:
8049324
An integrated circuit (IC) package includes a printed circuit board (PCB) substrate and a plurality of package attachment terminals. The package attachment terminals are used to conduct electrical signals from a die that is attached and bonded onto the PCB substrate. The PCB substrate has a side edge and includes a plurality of electrically-conductive paths. Each one of the plurality of paths includes an electroplated bond pad, a trace, and a stub trace. The die is connected to the bond…
System and method for video transmission line fault detection
Granted: October 25, 2011
Patent Number:
8045005
A video circuit including a video amplifier adapted to generate an amplified output video signal from an input video signal; a short detection circuit adapted to generate a first signal indicative of whether there is a short present at an output of the video amplifier; and a load detection circuit adapted to generate a second signal indicative of whether there is a load coupled to the output of the video amplifier. The video circuit may further include an input signal detection circuit…
Fault detection method for detecting leakage paths between power sources and chassis
Granted: October 18, 2011
Patent Number:
8040139
A method of detecting a ground fault condition between a direct current power system and the chassis ground of an electric or hybrid-electric vehicle is provided. The method includes sequentially opening and closing a first switch connected between a positive node of the direct current power system and the chassis ground of the vehicle and a second switch connected between a negative node of direct current power system and the chassis ground. The sequential opening and closing of the…
Time delay compensation and pulse width correction
Granted: October 18, 2011
Patent Number:
8040181
A system, method and apparatus is provided for pulse width correction in a power driver. In an embodiment, an apparatus includes an operational amplifier having an input and an output. The input of the operational amplifier is coupled to receive an input pulse signal. The apparatus further includes an output stage having an input coupled to the output of the operational amplifier. The output stage also includes a current output configured to couple to a load and to a voltage sense…
Wafer level package integrated circuit incorporating solder balls containing an organic plastic-core
Granted: October 11, 2011
Patent Number:
8035226
An integrated circuit including solder balls containing an elastic or resilient material core, a hard or rigid shell substantially enclosing the core, and an electrical contact layer substantially enclosing the shell. The elastic or resilient core serves as a stress buffer layer in a wafer level package (WLP) integrated circuit. The elastic or resilient material core may include an organic plastic material, such as a Divinilbenzene cross-linked co-polymer of relatively high resistance.…
System and method for compensating pulse generator for process and temperature variations
Granted: October 4, 2011
Patent Number:
8030985
An apparatus for generating a pulse having a pulse width substantially independent of process variation in resistive and capacitive values. The apparatus includes a PTAT current source to generate a first current to charge a capacitor to produce a first voltage; a ?VGS current source to generate a second current through a resistor to produce a second voltage V2; a comparator to generate the pulse in response to the first and second voltages; and a circuit to enable the charging and…
Input voltage clamp for a single-supply system
Granted: October 4, 2011
Patent Number:
8031448
A system, apparatus and a method are described that provide a voltage clamp for a single-supply system. In particular, a negative voltage clamp prevents a negative over-voltage in a system having only a positive independent voltage source. For example, certain analog-to-digital converters and other circuits allow input signals below the negative supply, or ground in single-supply systems, either by direct sampling or using input attenuation resistors. The negative clamp allows the…
System and method for performing optimized quantization via quantization re-scaling
Granted: October 4, 2011
Patent Number:
8031768
A method, system, and program product for quantizing discrete cosine transform coefficients, e.g., for MPEG compression, with minimal bit rate overhead and without using a quantization matrix. This is done by scaling a uniform quantization parameter for the entire discrete cosine transform block, defining a variety of thresholds for the quantization of discrete cosine transform coefficients below which the corresponding coefficient will be quantized to zero, and setting different…
Phase noise shaping using sigma delta modulation in a timing recovery unit
Granted: October 4, 2011
Patent Number:
8031783
A method and apparatus for converting a high precision digital word into a high precision analog value is disclosed. A sigma delta modulator applies a digital input signal to a dither signal to generate a combined signal for sampling. A digital-to-analog converter quantizes the combined signal. An analog filter provides a cutoff at a bandwidth of interest to remove out of band quantization noise and signals. An I transfer function and a Q transfer function can be coupled between the…
Thermally enhanced semiconductor package
Granted: September 13, 2011
Patent Number:
8018051
Disclosed are systems and methods for improving the thermal performance of integrated circuit packages. Aspects of the present invention include improved thermal package structures and methods for producing the same through the application of one or more thermal spreaders in the package. In embodiments, a thermal spreader is incorporated in a semiconductor chip package between a semiconductor die and its die pad. By including a thermal spreader in an IC package, the package can handle…
Switched capacitor amplifier circuit with clamping
Granted: September 13, 2011
Patent Number:
8018274
A system comprises a switched capacitor amplifier including an operational amplifier (opamp). A switching circuit comprises a first switch connected across inputs of the opamp. A second switch is connected across outputs of the opamp. An overdrive detect circuit communicates with the first and second switches and selectively shorts the inputs and the outputs of the opamp when the input voltage is greater than a first predetermined overdrive voltage or when the input voltage is less than…
12C/SMBus ladders and ladder enabled ICs
Granted: August 30, 2011
Patent Number:
8010724
I2C/SMBus ladders and ladder enabled ICs (devices) to enable daisy-chained I2C/SMBus communication. The devices are particularly useful in monitoring and/or servicing high-voltage battery stacks and other voltage stacks. The devices are powered from a respective voltage increment in the voltage stack, and include level shifting circuitry so as to be operative with an input voltage up to the breakdown voltage of the level shifting circuitry. Various features are disclosed, including but…
Intrusion detection using a conductive material
Granted: August 23, 2011
Patent Number:
8004419
Tampering with an assembly that includes an integrated circuit is detected by measuring a change in at least one property of a conductive molding formed over at least a portion of the integrated circuit. For example, the conductive molding can be a mixture of resin with conductive powder and/or fibers. The molding can be formed as a continuous region or as strips of conductive material. Conductive contacts are positioned to provide and receive current through portions of the conductive…
Efficient power regulation for class-E amplifiers
Granted: August 16, 2011
Patent Number:
8000113
A power converter device and method are provided. The power converter device includes an input power source and an input inductor configured for coupling a power of the input power source to the device. A switch is configured to regulate a power of the input power source through the input inductor. A shunting diode is coupled between the switch and the input inductor. A resonant load is coupled with the input inductor. A switching element is coupled with the input inductor and the…
RMS detector with automatic gain control
Granted: August 9, 2011
Patent Number:
7994840
Embodiments of the present invention provide systems, devices and methods for detecting the RMS value of a signal. The RMS detector uses multiple variable-gain stages and internal gain control to generate an RMS output signal based on an arbitrary signal input. This RMS detector significantly reduces the signal swings seen on a squarer within prior art RMS detectors and reduces the detector's dependency on DC offsets at low signal levels and overload errors at high signal levels. The…
Method and apparatus for generating a target frequency having an over-sampled data rate using a system clock having a different frequency
Granted: August 9, 2011
Patent Number:
7994947
Method and apparatus for generating a target frequency having an over-sampled data rate using a system clock having a different frequency are disclosed. In one aspect of the present disclosure, the circuit includes, a digital phase locked loop coupled to the system clock. The digital phase locked loop including an oscillator output and an oscillator input. The circuit further comprises an extra pulse eliminator coupled to the oscillator output. The extra pulse eliminator includes an…
Redistribution layer enhancement to improve reliability of wafer level packaging
Granted: August 2, 2011
Patent Number:
7989961
An enhanced redistribution layer is provided that geometrically expands redistribution layer (RDL) pads associated with a ball grid array of a wafer level package (WLP) to provide tensile stress relief during temperature cycle and/or drop testing of the WLP.
Db-linear process-independent variable gain amplifier
Granted: August 2, 2011
Patent Number:
7990218
An amplifier is provided with continuously-variable analog control that exhibits a highly linear gain control curve in db/volts, while preserving high dynamic range, low third order distortion, and low noise. This amplifier has a control mechanism that preserves a varied linear or log linear curve over a wide range and is inherently insensitive to process variations thereby allowing more accurate gain control and higher signal fidelity for amplifying high dynamic range signals.
Integrated circuit package including a three-dimensional fan-out / fan-in signal routing
Granted: July 19, 2011
Patent Number:
7982305
An integrated circuit (IC) package is disclosed comprising a substrate including a plurality of substrate contacts; a semiconductor die including a plurality of die contacts; and a plurality of conductors for providing direct connections between substrate contacts and die contacts, respectively. By having the conductors directly route the connections between the die contacts and substrate contacts, many improvements may be realized including, but not limited to, improved package routing…
