Did You Know...
...that Charles Goodyear performed some of his experiments on rubber while in debtor's prison? He was there so often he referred to it as his "hotel". Chronically in debt because of poor business sense and ill health, Goodyear depended on the generosity of friends and family. Even after he unlocked the secret to vulcanizing rubber, he was unable to improve his financial situation. When he died, his estate was $200,000 in debt.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 5949257 | DC level transition detecting circuit for sensor devices The DC sensor signal S, on which a low frequency waviness component S1 and a high frequency noise component S2, is obtained by amplitude detecting for a sinusoidal output signal from a touch signal probe. For generating a touch trigger signal TG at an sbr... | 09/07/1999 |
| 5945864 | Circuit configuration for offset compensation A circuit configuration for offset compensation includes a filter device for ascertaining a direct component in an input signal delivered to it and a linking device for subtractive linking of the input signal and an output signal of the filter device. A t... | 08/31/1999 |
| 5939992 | Safety apparatus for electric appliances A safety apparatus for electric appliances which includes a sensor for sensing that an electric appliance is operating. An alarm coupled with the sensor, whereby an alarm is initiated. A manually operated alarm disabling switch permitting a person supervi... | 08/17/1999 |
| 5933459 | Dual reference voltage input receiver for high speed data transmission A dual reference voltage input receiver comprises a latch, comparison logic for determining the voltage level of a data signal relative to that of first and second reference voltage levels, and selection logic for determining which of the reference voltag... | 08/03/1999 |
| 5926043 | Output circuit for a semiconductor device An output circuit for a semiconductor device that outputs an output voltage based on a received external signal. The output circuit has an interface that receives the external signal, and a comparing unit that compares the external signal with a plurality... | 07/20/1999 |
| 5909143 | Circuit for determining and storing an average signal value In a circuit for determining and storing an average signal value, an overlaid dc voltage part is identified and subtracted from the actual signal. To this end, an all-pass filter with which both a transfer response is optimized and the error is minimized ... | 06/01/1999 |
| 5872468 | Level detector circuit, interface and method for interpreting and processing multi-level signals To decode an attenuated multi-level signal (42) in a receive interface (120) of communication apparatus, first (134) and second (150) diode pumps co-operate with a biasing chain to ensure that threshold reference levels used by respective positive (52) an... | 02/16/1999 |
| 5864456 | Clock line over-current protector and industrial control system employing same A clock line over-protection circuit (28) carried on an interface card (16) for interfacing synchronous clock line (20), power line (22), DC common line (24) and data line (26) between a host computer (12) and a plurality of data link modules (14) with a ... | 01/26/1999 |
| 5856750 | Interface circuit having receiving side circuit for controlling logical threshold values In an interface circuit having a transmitting side circuit, a receiving side circuit and a transmission path connecting the transmitting side circuit and the receiving side circuit in a transmission system for transmitting a predetermined signal between t... | 01/05/1999 |
| 5854564 | Direct sensor interface (DSI) module A direct sensor interface (DSI) module which allows a microcontroller to directly interface to sensors having at least one of a resistive, capacitive, and/or current source characteristic. The DSI module is coupled directly to a sensor device, which could... | 12/29/1998 |
| 5852491 | Distance measuring apparatus A distance measuring apparatus measures the time an emitted optical pulse requires to go and return the distance to a target before being received by using the emission time and the reception time of the optical pulse, and obtains the distance to the targ... | 12/22/1998 |
| 5850156 | Processor supervisory circuit and method having increased range of power-on reset signal stability For use in a processor supervisory circuit, a power-on reset circuit, a method of producing a power-on reset ("RESET") signal and a power supply including the circuit. The circuit includes: (1) an adaptive, nonlinear voltage divider having a voltage input... | 12/15/1998 |
| 5838168 | 3V/5V input buffer An input buffer capable of operating at a first power supply voltage level or a second power supply voltage level with the operating voltage level selectable during manufacture. At least one shortable transistor is disposed between the power supply voltag... | 11/17/1998 |
| 5821790 | Power line synchronization conditioner A circuit for generating a time base signal from a power line signal produced by an alternating current (AC) power source. The circuit sets the output of a latch to a first state when a positive peak of the power line signal is detected, and sets the outp... | 10/13/1998 |
| 5804997 | Current-to-voltage converting device and light receiver A device for converting a current pulse signal into a voltage pulse signal through a conversion from a current to a voltage includes a converting unit converting the current pulse signal into a first voltage signal, a voltage reducing unit generating a se... | 09/08/1998 |
| 5787005 | Method and apparatus for signal threshold adjustment that compensates for signal asymmetry A method and apparatus for signal threshold adjustment that compensates for signal asymmetry which utilizes an algorithm to detect each side of an asymmetric signal independently to ensure that the proper signal detection point is used on both the high an... | 07/28/1998 |
| 5777496 | Circuit for preventing more than one transistor from conducting A totem pole output stage including first and second control modules cross coupled to first and second switching modules for measuring the charge on the gate of a FET contained in the opposing switching module to determine the condition of the opposing sw... | 07/07/1998 |
| 5777494 | Signal discrimination circuit for unknown signal amplitude and distortion A discrimination circuit discriminates a signal with high stability without being affected by a waveform of the signal to be tested by using an optimum threshold level. The discrimination circuit includes, mark detection means 30 for measuring a mark rate... | 07/07/1998 |
| 5772205 | System to detect inoperative switches in an amusement device A system for determining switch condition in an amusement device having at least one triggering switch is provided. The system comprises a first circuit for generating a first reference electrical signal, a second circuit linked to the at least one trigge... | 06/30/1998 |
| 5764703 | Circuit for restoring bits transmitted asynchronously The present invention relates to a circuit for restoring bits transmitted by an asynchronous signal, including a comparator of the signal level with a reference level; a sampling circuit supplying several samples of the comparator output for each time int... | 06/09/1998 |
| 5757211 | IC precision resistor ratio matching with different tub bias voltages An integrated circuit motor controller having two or more integrated resistor dividers which produce signals to be compared with each other is disclosed. The circuit is designed to substantially reduce the dependency of the comparison on the reverse bias ... | 05/26/1998 |
| 5748014 | Edge detector An edge detector for producing output signals in a manner dependent on positive and/or negative edges of an input signal comprises a control circuit (10), by which a reference signal level (Vref) available at a storage element (C) may be contin... | 05/05/1998 |
| 5729162 | Integrated circuit memory with column voltage holding circuit An integrated circuit memory comprises a circuit that keeps the column voltage constant during the recording of a binary value. This circuit has a differential amplifier which measures the difference between a reference voltage given by a voltage divider ... | 03/17/1998 |
| 5726742 | Circuit and method for determining time of arrival An improved circuit and method of making precise time of arrival measurements on optical pulse data of relatively varying widths. The invention provides an analog input pulse representing received optical pulse data, along with a delayed version of the an... | 03/10/1998 |
| 5719524 | Circuit having an input terminal for controlling two functions An integrated circuit providing two output functions from a single output controlled by an input with a single switch responsive to an input level.... | 02/17/1998 |
| 5717331 | Demodulator circuit for use with a displacement sensor to provide position information To allow a displacement sensor to operate independently of changes in the excitation signal to the transducer, a demodulating circuit utilizing a single integrator is provided wherein comparison is made between the excitation signal and a reference signal... | 02/10/1998 |
| 5712475 | Light receiving circuit with variable threshold circuit A light receiving circuit provided with an amplifier for amplifying an output signal of a semiconductor light receiving element is disclosed. The amplified electrical signal is first inputted to the inverting input terminal of a comparator. An output volt... | 01/27/1998 |
| 5703504 | Feedforward adaptive threshold processing method A signal processing circuit (10) generates a bias signal (27) that is used for biasing a comparator (26). An input signal (14) is compared to the bias signal (27) in order to reconstruct the input signal (14) on an output of the comparator. The bias signa... | 12/30/1997 |
| 5687321 | Method and apparatus for transmitting signals over a wire pair having activity detection capability A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving information over a network that allows the detection of data transmission activity over a wire pair on the network. Within a computer system or other network device a driver-receiver circuit along with... | 11/11/1997 |
| 5631585 | Wave-shaping circuit A wave-shaping circuit comprises a dynamic hysteresis generating circuit for generating a dynamic hysteresis voltage having a certain crest value and whose signal level attenuates at a speed proportional to a number of engine revolutions to mask an igniti... | 05/20/1997 |
| 5617044 | Comparator circuit A comparator circuit has a selection circuit for receiving an input signal, a reference signal, and a selection signal, for generating an inverted input signal which is made by inverting the input signal, for selecting the reference signal during a normal... | 04/01/1997 |
| 5602876 | Advanced parameter encoder with pulse-on-pulse detection and pulse fragment reconstruction In an RF receiver a system is provided to digitally determine when a pulse has stabilized and when a pulse has restabilized after becoming unstable. The restabilized levels can be detected whether they are above or below the initial stabilization level. T... | 02/11/1997 |
| 5598438 | Cordless telecommunication apparatus For the demodulation of modulated carrier signals (AS) supplied to the cordless telecommunication apparatus, a data comparator (1212) is used in the cordless information transmission, especially a DECT-specific information transmission, which data compara... | 01/28/1997 |
| 5581072 | Digitizing circuit for a laser scanner including positive peak detectors A circuit for digitizing an analog signal generated from a photoelectric conversion of reflected light when scanning indicia having spatially-separated, light-reflective portions bounded by edges includes a differentiator for differentiating the analog si... | 12/03/1996 |
| 5534801 | Apparatus and method for automatic sense and establishment of 5V and 3.3V operation An interface circuit is provided for connecting to a multi-mode signal bus. The signal bus (e.g., a PCI local bus) can operate in either a first or second signaling mode. The first signaling mode is one in which discrete logic levels (e.g., binary "0" and... | 07/09/1996 |
| 5532618 | Stress mode circuit for an integrated circuit with on-chip voltage down converter A stress mode circuit is provided to generate a voltage that is either equal to a reference voltage or is a proportion of an external voltage (VCCEXT). The circuit includes two voltage divider circuits to provide the proportion voltage. Two differential a... | 07/02/1996 |
| 5530395 | Supply voltage level control using reference voltage generator and comparator circuits A voltage level detection circuit is described which can detect changes in a supply voltage level. A difference voltage generating circuit produces a voltage across the two terminals of a resistor which is a function of the supply voltage level. The volta... | 06/25/1996 |
| 5530401 | Single source differential circuit A circuit for supplying a reference voltage from a single data input voltage source is provided which utilizes a delay circuit in conjunction with a source follower circuit to provide a separate reference voltage to a differential circuit. The data input ... | 06/25/1996 |
| 5488449 | Infinite-distance detecting circuit for an auto-focus system An infinite-distance detecting circuit for use in an auto-focusing system in a camera including an amplifier section for amplifying a position detection signal, a reference signal generation section sampling the position detection signal, holding the samp... | 01/30/1996 |
| 5483182 | Method and apparatus for a DC-DC converter an current limiting thereof A reference current source (38) and a matched reference transistor (40) are provided as part of a current limiting circuit, wherein the matched reference transistor (40) is scaled, electrically matched, and physically located in close proximity to an on-c... | 01/09/1996 |
