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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8144760 | Pulse width modulation circuits and methods Noise reducing circuitry may be included in a pulse width modulation circuit. The pulse width modulation circuit may include a comparator adapted to receive an analog signal and a sawtooth signal and to compare such signals to generate a pulse width output. In gener... | 03/27/2012 |
| 8095105 | Method of operating radio receiver implemented in a single CMOS integrated circuit A single chip superhetrodyne AM receiver is disclosed herein. To compensate for process variations in the implementation of the IC, bias currents setting the operating conditions for various amplifiers and other components in the system are adjusted based on frequen... | 01/10/2012 |
| 8022736 | Line driver with tuned on-chip termination A line driver includes current sources and resistors that form a bridge circuit in which a bridge resistor is connected between an internal node and ground, and a series resistor connected between the internal node and the driver's output node. The internal node is ... | 09/20/2011 |
| 7853224 | Fast settling radio receiver automatic gain control system A fast settling AGC system includes a “fast settle” comparator that facilitates fast settling of strong radio receiver output signals from a maximum to an intermediate voltage level at the start of each transmission burst, and a “normal” AGC comparator that ... | 12/14/2010 |
| 7843147 | LED driver circuits and methods An LED driver circuit may include dimming circuitry. In particular, the LED driver circuit may include a switching converter, an LED and a switch. The LED may be electrically connected to the switching converter and the switch may be connected in parallel with the L... | 11/30/2010 |
| 7843019 | Seal ring for mixed circuitry semiconductor devices In mixed-component, mixed-signal, semiconductor devices, selective seal ring isolation from the substrate and its electrical potential is provided in order to segregate noise sensitive circuitry from electrical noise generated by electrically noisy circuitry. Approp... | 11/30/2010 |
| 7835470 | Data slicer reference generator for multiple burst data signals A slice level reference generator and method for performing improved data slicing operations when gaps are present in a data stream is disclosed that involves applying a nominal reference signal to the comparator the during signal gaps. In one embodiment, a receiver... | 11/16/2010 |
| 7746150 | Circuit and method for providing a fail-safe differential receiver A fail-safe differential receiver having a differential amplifier adapted to receive first and second differential input signals and generate a differential voltage. A peak detector is coupled to the differential amplifier for generating a detect signal and a compar... | 06/29/2010 |
| 7738225 | Circuit and method for limiting power to a load A circuit and method for limiting the power supplied to a load are provided. The circuit and method prevent power supplied to the load from exceeding a power threshold for a programmable amount of time specified in a timer. The circuit includes a voltage controlled ... | 06/15/2010 |
| 7724068 | Bandgap-referenced thermal sensor A thermal sensor for an integrated circuit including a bandgap reference circuit. The thermal sensor includes a comparator that compares a temperature dependent voltage generated by the bandgap reference circuit to a temperature independent voltage, where both tempe... | 05/25/2010 |
| 7679420 | Slew rate controlled level shifter with reduced quiescent current A level shifter circuit includes two parallel current paths respectively controlled by switch transistors, a Wilson current mirror circuit, and a slew rate control circuit to selectively couple an output node either to a high (first) voltage source or to a ground (s... | 03/16/2010 |
| 7656139 | Creating additional phase margin in the open loop gain of a negative feedback amplifier system using a boost zero compensating resistor A low-dropout voltage (LDO) regulator that creates a zero in the open loop gain using a relatively small-sized current control element to divert part of the supplied load current through a “zero” resistor before adding it to the output load. The main part of the... | 02/02/2010 |
| 7622871 | Light emitting diode driver circuit with shunt switch A LED driver circuit avoids undesirable light generated by a LED due to leakage current by shunting the output terminal to the feedback terminal during periods when it is desired that the LED remain turned off. The shunting operation is achieved by providing a switc... | 11/24/2009 |
| 7602646 | Threshold evaluation of EPROM cells Evaluating an embedded EPROM in a host IC device involves using program circuitry to program/unprogram all of the floating-gate cells of the embedded EPROM, then simultaneously transmitting a predetermined test bias voltage to all of the programmed/unprogrammed floa... | 10/13/2009 |
| 7541796 | MOSFET triggered current boosting technique for power devices A voltage regulator output stage can include a power device whose body to source junction is forward biased using a MOSFET trigger. The forward biasing can advantageously reduce the threshold voltage of the power device, thereby effectively increasing its gate drive... | 06/02/2009 |
| 7508179 | Dual input prioritized LDO regulator An LDO regulator includes two linear regulator circuits and an internal priority logic scheme that favors generating a regulated output voltage using a regulated supply voltage over an unregulated supply voltage. The unregulated supply voltage is applied to a first ... | 03/24/2009 |
| 7485549 | Seal ring for mixed circuitry semiconductor devices In mixed-component, mixed-signal, semiconductor devices, selective seal ring isolation from the substrate and its electrical potential is provided in order to segregate noise sensitive circuitry from electrical noise generated by electrically noisy circuitry. Approp... | 02/03/2009 |
| 7463012 | Bandgap reference circuits with isolated trim elements A bandgap reference circuit utilizes differential transistors to generate a temperature-independent bandgap voltage. In place of conventional trim elements that are connected in parallel to and adjust the resistance values of the bandgap reference circuit, current c... | 12/09/2008 |
| 7449754 | Single poly BiCMOS flash cell with floating body A BiCMOS integrated circuit (IC) includes a floating gate-type non-volatile memory (NVM) device that uses the polycrystalline silicon gate of a CMOS FET and the P-base and N-emitter diffusions of a bipolar transistor to provide an isolated P-type body and N-type sou... | 11/11/2008 |
| 7439945 | Light emitting diode driver circuit with high-speed pulse width modulated current control A Light-Emitting Diode (LED) driver circuit is disclosed that controls the brightness of light generated by a LED that is coupled between a first terminal and a second terminal in response to a user supplied brightness control signal. A constant current source gener... | 10/21/2008 |
| 7424348 | System and method for monitoring serially-connected devices A monitoring system comprising a plurality of devices, each including a shift register and a status register. The plurality of shift registers are coupled in a serial chain. The monitoring engine is configured to receive status information from the shift registers a... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7423247 | Automatic control of laser diode current and optical power output An automatic power control system provides a control signal that regulates the output power of at least one laser diode. Coarse adjustment of the control signal is provided by a first means, preferably a digital variable resistor, while fine adjustment and compensat... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7415647 | Test mode for pin-limited devices A pin-limited device includes a pattern-recognition circuit that detects a predetermined signal pattern transmitted on a supply pin of the device. The predetermined signal pattern is generated within the acceptable operating voltage range of the IC device (e.g., bet... | 08/19/2008 |
| 7378827 | Analog internal soft-start and clamp circuit for switching regulator An analog soft-start circuit for a switching regulator (e.g., a buck converter) including an analog ramp circuit and an open-loop analog voltage clamp circuit. The voltage ramp circuit utilizes a two-stage current divider circuit to generate a very low, stable curre... | 05/27/2008 |
| 7358804 | Amplifier turn-on speedup technique A method of reducing the settling time of an amplifier includes providing a pre-set voltage on a high gain node of the amplifier when the amplifier is disabled. This pre-set voltage can be slightly less than the regulated voltage. In this manner, when the amplifier ... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7339441 | Circuit and method for quickly turning off MOS device An OTA driving an MOS device needs to turn it off quickly to minimize overshoot during a heavy to light load state. The drains of the MOS device can be used to accelerate turning off the MOS device. A first drain is connected to the gate of the MOS device. A second ... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7330059 | In-loop duty corrector delay-locked loop for multiphase clock generation A delay-locked loop (DLL) employs an in-loop duty cycle corrector (DCC) to provide accurate multiphase clock generation with 50% duty cycle. Each delay cell can advantageously provide both delay and duty cycle correction functionality. In one embodiment, delay corre... | 02/12/2008 |
| 7323854 | Zero cancellation in multiloop regulator control scheme Control loops in a voltage regulator can be stabilized using minimal silicon area. A current limit signal, generated by a current limit control loop in the voltage regulator, can be divided to minimize a zero provided in a compensation set associated with a voltage ... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7323918 | Mutual-interpolating delay-locked loop for high-frequency multiphase clock generation A delay-locked loop (DLL) circuit with mutual-interpolating architecture that provides multiple-phase clock generation is presented. Each delay-cell in the DLL circuit delay chain is effectively an interpolator that combines two input clock signals: one input clock ... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7321484 | Providing accurate detection of chip overheat and local overheat conditions in integrated circuits A thermal shutdown system that can accurately detect a chip overheat condition or a local overheat condition is described. This system can include a first shutdown circuit triggered by the chip overheat condition and a second shutdown circuit triggered by the local ... | 01/22/2008 |
| 7298125 | Right half-plane zero compensation and cancellation for switching regulators An improved method of canceling a RHPZ of a switching regulator can include detecting a predetermined error signal provided to a pulse width modulation (PWM) circuit, wherein the predetermined error signal is associated with the RHPZ. Once a RHPZ is detected, a ramp... | 11/20/2007 |
| 7299029 | Method of operating radio receiver implemented in a single CMOS integrated circuit A single chip superhetrodyne AM receiver is disclosed herein. To compensate for process variations in the implementation of the IC, bias currents setting the operating conditions for various amplifiers and other components in the system are adjusted based on frequen... | 11/20/2007 |
| 7292084 | Timer circuit with adaptive reference A timer circuit includes a current mirror, a capacitor, a first switch, a resistor and a comparator. The current mirror receives a reference current and provides first and second currents with a predefined current ratio. The capacitor receives the first current as a... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7272744 | Method for signaling during a transaction and receiving unit and system for use therewith A transmitting device communicates a multi-level clock signal to a receiving device. Changes in the clock level may indicate the start or stop of a transmitting message or delineate fields in the transmitted message. The number of clock pulses received at a particul... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7248026 | Single-pin tracking/soft-start function with timer control A voltage regulator includes a voltage divider connected between a soft-start pin and the voltage regulator's error amplifier. The voltage divider has the same divider ratio as that of the voltage regulator's feedback voltage divider, which is used to divide the reg... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7230408 | Pulse frequency modulated voltage regulator with linear regulator control A PFM-type voltage regulator circuit converts an unregulated input voltage into a regulated output voltage using a first transistor controlled by a pulse control circuit and a second transistor controlled by a linear regulator circuit. The linear regulator circuit c... | 06/12/2007 |
| 7227388 | Propagation delay characteristic comparator circuit A comparator circuit having improved operational characteristics. A predetermined voltage drop device is provided, such as an exemplary embodiment Schottky diode, having an anode connected to circuit power supply voltage and an output stage of the comparator and a c... | 06/05/2007 |
| 7224727 | Apparatus and method for encoding signals The present invention provides an apparatus and method for encoding and/or decoding signals. The encoding apparatus includes a variable impedance being coupled with an encoder. The variable impedance establishes a select voltage at the encoder. The encoder is furthe... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7211893 | Integrating chip scale packaging metallization into integrated circuit die structures Wafer-level chip-scale packaging technology is used for improving performance or reducing size of integrated circuits by using metallization of pad-to-bump-out beams as part of the integrated circuit structure. Chip-scale packaging under bump metal is routed to incr... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7203213 | Laser turn-on accelerator independent of bias control loop bandwidth An accelerator circuit is incorporated in a laser diode system for accelerating the turn-on operation of the laser diode independent of the control loop bandwidth of the laser diode system. The accelerator circuit provides a boost current to a compensation capacitor... | 04/10/2007 |
