Did You Know...
...that after Parker Brothers executives turned down the game of Monopoly because it had "52 fundamental errors" (including taking too long to play), a copy of the game wound up in the home of the company president who stayed up until 1 a.m. to finish playing it? He was so impressed by the game that the next day he wrote to inventor Charles Darrow and offered to buy it!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8035074 | Automatic gain control for motion encoder signals Disclosed are various embodiments of pulse generation and automatic gain control (“AGC”) circuits and corresponding methods that are especially well suited for use in motion encoding systems. Analog output signals provided by a motion encoder serve as inputs to ... | 10/11/2011 |
| 7645978 | Image sensing apparatus and image sensing method using image sensor having two or more different photoelectric conversion characteristics An image sensing apparatus and an image sensing method of the invention are configured in such a manner that an image sensor having two or more different photoelectric conversion characteristics is used, a gain of image signals having the respective photoelectric co... | 01/12/2010 |
| 7601940 | Gain control system for visible light communication systems An optical receiver having a photodetector, a variable gain amplifier, and a gain control circuit is disclosed. The photodetector generates a photodetector output signal related to an intensity of light received by the photodetector, the photodetector output signal ... | 10/13/2009 |
| 7598480 | Apparatus and method of image processing to avoid image saturation An imaging device includes a plurality of photo-diodes that operate as optical pixels arranged in a plurality of columns on a single CMOS substrate. The outputs of the multiple pixel sensors, or photo-diodes, are examined to determine if a one pixel, or a region of ... | 10/06/2009 |
| 7495205 | Automatic gain control in photodetectors The amount of gain applied to a photodetector such as a photomultiplier tube (PMT) is limited to an amount that does not cause the applied PMT bias voltage to overdrive, hence damage, the PMT. Techniques for limiting the PMT gain are implemented in a way that does n... | 02/24/2009 |
| 7465912 | Integrated realization of sensing and processing An integrated sensing device comprising an array of sensor processor cells capable of being arranged into a detection array: Each sensor processor cell comprises a sensing medium; at least one transconductance amplifier configured for feedforward template multiplica... | 12/16/2008 |
| 7442911 | Photodector including photodiodes having improved dynamic range, s/n ratio and speed of light detection The present invention aims at providing a photodetector which can improve each of the dynamic range, S/N ratio, and speed of light detection. A photodiode PDm,n generates electric charges by an amount corresponding to the incident light intensity, and acc... | 10/28/2008 |
| 7427738 | Light-receiving amplifier and optical pickup device A light-receiving amplifier circuit of the present invention includes: a first preamplifier circuit to which a light-receiving element is connected; a second preamplifier circuit which is the same type as the first preamplifier circuit and which is apart from the li... | 09/23/2008 |
| 7420152 | Wide-range linear output photo sensor circuit A system and method for acquisition and conditioning of a signal received from a light sensor generating an input signal in proportion to a sensed amount of light, the system utilizing an operational amplifier with first and second feedback loops to render the outpu... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7421213 | Optical receiver control device with a switchable bandwidth A control device with a switchable bandwidth including: an integrating element with a first capacitance, which is charged and discharged by at least one current; at least one second capacitance, which can be connected in parallel with the first capacitance via a fir... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7406268 | Optical receiver circuit An optical receiver circuit is constructed to be immune to interference from external interference signals. The optical receiver circuit includes a differential amplifier having an optical reception device connected to one input of the differential amplifier. The op... | 07/29/2008 |
| 7394995 | System and method for a compact optical receiver with wide dynamic range An optical receiver is disclosed comprising an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) that is coupled to a photodiode and transimpedance amplifier without filtering output light signal in the EDFA. Optionally, a clock/data regenerator can be coupled to the electrical o... | 07/01/2008 |
| 7376359 | Digital regulated light receive module and regulation method The invention discloses a digital adjusting method for an optical receiver module, and the method implements real-time monitor of parameters, on-line adjustment and non-linear compensation. The digital optical receiver module includes elements as follow: a voltage o... | 05/20/2008 |
| 7373091 | Multicasting optical switch fabric and method of detection based on novel heterodyne receiver The inventors propose herein a switch fabric architecture that allows broadcasting and fast channel access in the ns-range. In various embodiments of the present invention, 10 Gb/s receiver modules are based on a novel heterodyne receiver and detection technique, wh... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7369781 | Burst mode optical receiver considering characteristic of extinction ratio of received optical signal Provided is a burst mode optical receiver considering a characteristic of an extinction ratio of a received optical signal is provided. By using a peak detector considering a characteristic of an extinction ratio, top and bottom peak voltages of actual burst packets... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7339154 | Level detector A level detector includes a light receiving element unit having a plurality of light receiving elements; a first amplifier circuit configured to amplify a light receiving signal; a first gain switching circuit; a first peak hold circuit; an arithmetic control device... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7330668 | Low noise light receiver The low noise light receiver comprises a light sensor for generating a sensor signal, the sensor signal comprising a wanted signal resulting from a light source and an interfering signal resulting from interfering light; an optical filter apparatus for reducing the ... | 02/12/2008 |
| 7330670 | Bottom level detection device for burst mode optical receiver A bottom level detection device is disclosed for a burst mode optical receiver. The receiver includes a converter for converting a burst mode signal into a voltage signal and an automatic gain controller for automatically controlling a gain of the converter. The bot... | 02/12/2008 |
| 7312856 | Programmable pulse capture device with automatic gain control The invention an optical system and a method for automatically controlling the gain of a receiver in an optical system. The optical system includes an optical receiver, a pulse capture unit, and an automatic gain control. The pulse capture unit includes a capture un... | 12/25/2007 |
| 7309852 | Variable noise control for an optical transducer In one embodiment, an optical transducer, such as an infrared transducer, generates an output signal that is representative of optical irradiance. A noise control circuit is coupled in a power supply path of the optical transducer. A switching circuit varies the noi... | 12/18/2007 |
| 7309853 | Method for controlling a bias voltage applied to an avalanche photodiode The invention discloses an optical receiver that prevents the instability of the bias voltage to the avalanche photodiode (APD) and facilitates the recovery of the bias voltage from the safety value. The optical receiver comprises the APD, the DC-DC converter to sup... | 12/18/2007 |
| 7304674 | Sampling image signals generated by pixel circuits of an active pixel sensor (APS) image sensor in a sub-sampling mode A method of sampling image signals generated by pixel circuits of an active pixel sensor (APS) image sensor. The APS image sensor supports a normal mode of operation and a sub-sampling mode of operation. The method includes providing a plurality of column amplifiers... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7297917 | Readout technique for increasing or maintaining dynamic range in image sensors The apparatus and method provide a readout technique and circuit for increasing or maintaining dynamic range of an image sensor. The readout technique and circuit process each pixel individually based on the magnitude of the readout signal. The circuit includes a ga... | 11/20/2007 |
| 7298978 | Method and apparatus for optimizing decision level of signal output from optical receiver An optical receiver in an optical communication system, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for optimizing a decision level of a signal output from an optical receiver to obtain a minimum bit error rate (BER) by measuring output characteristics of th... | 11/20/2007 |
| 7297922 | Optical receiver protection circuit An apparatus for optical receiver circuit protection includes a bias source, a bias monitor, and a comparator. The bias source is to provide a bias voltage to an optical receiver. The bias monitor is coupled to measure a current through the optical receiver, where t... | 11/20/2007 |
| 7288750 | Light signaling device Light signalling device, in particular intended to be mounted on board an aircraft, includes a plurality of light elements mounted on a support and surrounded by a translucent cover, said device including a means of reflecting the light emitted by the light elements... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7282692 | Light receiving method of an avalanche photodiode and a bias control circuit of the same The present invention provides a method to maintain a multiplication factor of an avalanche photodiode independent on temperatures without additional devices. The light-receiving apparatus of the invention includes an avalanche photodiode (APD), a dividing circuit, ... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7268338 | Imaging array having variable conversion gain A CCD imaging array and a charge measurement amplifier for use in such imaging arrays is disclosed. The array includes a plurality of pixels that accumulate charge when exposed to light, a readout amplifier having input and output ports. The readout amplifier has a ... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7263046 | Photo-detector amplifier circuit for optical disk device A two-stage amplifier of a first-stage amplifier 21 and second-stage amplifiers 22 and 23 is provided. A writing mode and reproducing modes are switched in the first-stage amplifier 21 by switching a parallel circuit of a feedback capacit... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7256384 | Signal-enhancement system for photodetector outputs A light scattering photometer signal-enhancement systems includes an adaptive sample and subtract circuit controlled by a computer or microcontroller (MCU). The MCU controls the gain of a programmable-gain amplifier (PGA) cascade that is used to amplify the raw phot... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7245179 | Auto gain controller A gain-controlled transimpedance amplifier circuit that comprises a first gain unit including an input for receiving a first current and an output, a current source for providing a second current, a second gain unit including an input and an output, a first impedanc... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7236192 | Image-sensing device Based on the output signal of an area sensor 1, a level adjustment circuit 2 adjusts the bias voltage fed to the transistors provided within the individual pixels of the area sensor 1 and operating in a subthreshold region and thereby adjusts th... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7236056 | Direct current offset canceling circuit of trans-impedance amplifier and automatic gain control trans-impedance amplifier thereof A direct current (DC) offset canceling circuit of a trans-impedance amplifier and an automatic gain control trans-impedance amplifier is provided, including: a trans-impedance amplifier for receiving an input current and converting the input current into a first vol... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7232984 | Sensor with improved gain-setting capability A method of calibrating a sensor such as a photodetector, and device capable of employing that method, are disclosed. The method includes shining light upon a photosensitive device of the photodetector, receiving a first signal from an operator, and increasing a gai... | 06/19/2007 |
| 7221229 | Receiver circuit having an optical reception device A receiver circuit having an optical reception device and having an amplifier connected to the reception device, the amplifier also having a circuit for setting the operating point of the amplifier and also at least one control terminal of the circuit, by which the ... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7218865 | Burst-mode optical receiver of differential output structure A burst-mode optical receiver of a differential-output structure is disclosed. The burst-mode optical receiver includes a trans-impedance amplifier for converting currents indicating the burst-mode signals into voltage signals, a bottom-level detector for detecting ... | 05/15/2007 |
| 7214924 | Light-receiving method of an avalanche photodiode and a bias control circuit of the same The present invention provides a method to maintain a multiplication factor of an avalanche photodiode independent on temperatures without additional devices. The light-receiving apparatus of the invention includes an avalanche photodiode (APD), a dividing circuit, ... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7212749 | Signal receiver having wide band amplification capability An Improved Signal Receiver Having Wide Band Amplification Capability is disclosed. Also disclosed is a receiver that is able to receive and reliably amplify infrared and/or other wireless signals having frequency bandwidths in excess of 40 MHz. The receiver of the ... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7167655 | Measurement system for wide dynamic range optical power meter A measurement system for wide dynamic range operation in optical power measurement applications is disclosed. The system provides amplification over a wide dynamic range without glitch, signal loss or transient effect during range switch. This is achieved by combini... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7157977 | Automatic gain control feedback amplifier There is provided a feedback amplifier capable of easily controlling its dynamic range without a separate gain control signal generation circuit. The feedback amplifier includes an input terminal detecting an input voltage from input current, a feedback amplificatio... | 01/02/2007 |
