82 results about "Discrete circuit" patented technology

Implantable medical devices (IMDs) having sense amplifiers for sensing physiologic signals and parameters, RF telemetry capabilities for uplink transmitting patient data and downlink receiving programming and interrogation commands to and from an external programmer or other medical device are disclosed. At least one IC chip and discrete components have a volume and dimensions that are optimally minimized to reduce its volumetric form factor. Miniaturization techniques include forming notch filters of MEMS structures or forming discrete circuit notch filters by one or more of: (1) IC fabricating inductors into one or more IC chips mounted to the RF module substrate; (2) mounting each IC chip into a well of the RF module substrate and using short bonding wires to electrically connect bond pads of the RF module substrate and the IC chip; and (3) surface mounting discrete capacitors over IC chips to reduce space taken up on the RF module substrate. The IC fabricated inductors are preferably fabricated as planar spiral wound conductive traces formed of high conductive metals to reduce trace height and width while maintaining low resistance, thereby reducing parasitic capacitances between adjacent trace side walls and with a ground plane of the IC chip. The spiral winding preferably is square or rectangular, but having truncated turns to eliminate 90° angles that cause point-to-point parasitic capacitances. The planar spiral wound conductive traces are further preferably suspended over the ground plane of the IC chip substrate by micromachining underlying substrate material away to thereby reduce parasitic capacitances.

Implantable medical devices (IMDs) having sense amplifiers for sensing physiologic signals and parameters, RF telemetry capabilities for uplink transmitting patient data and downlink receiving programming and interrogation commands to and from an external programmer or other medical device are disclosed. At least one IC chip and discrete components have a volume and dimensions that are optimally minimized to reduce its volumetric form factor. Miniaturization techniques include forming notch filters of MEMS structures or forming discrete circuit notch filters by one or more of: (1) IC fabricating inductors into one or more IC chips mounted to the RF module substrate; (2) mounting each IC chip into a well of the RF module substrate and using short bonding wires to electrically connect bond pads of the RF module substrate and the IC chip; and (3) surface mounting discrete capacitors over IC chips to reduce space taken up on the RF module substrate. The IC fabricated inductors are preferably fabricated as planar spiral wound conductive traces formed of high conductive metals to reduce trace height and width while maintaining low resistance, thereby reducing parasitic capacitances between adjacent trace side walls and with a ground plane of the IC chip. The spiral winding preferably is square or rectangular, but having truncated turns to eliminate 90° angles that cause point-to-point parasitic capacitances. The planar spiral wound conductive traces are further preferably suspended over the ground plane of the IC chip substrate by micromachining underlying substrate material away to thereby reduce parasitic capacitances.

A transducer assembly utilizing at least two MEMS transducers is provided, the transducer assembly preferably defining either an omnidirectional or directional microphone. In addition to at least first and second MEMS transducers, the assembly includes a signal processing circuit electrically connected to the MEMS transducers, a plurality of terminal pads electrically connected to the signal processing circuit, and a transducer enclosure housing the first and second MEMS transducers. The MEMS transducers may be electrically connected to the signal processing circuit using either wire bonds or a flip-chip design. The signal processing circuit may be comprised of either a discrete circuit or an integrated circuit. The first and second MEMS transducers may be electrically connected in series or in parallel to the signal processing circuit. The first and second MEMS transducers may be acoustically coupled in series or in parallel.

A novel design and method for manufacturing camera modules is disclosed. The camera module includes a flexible circuit substrate, an image capture device flip-chip mounted to the bottom surface of the flexible circuit substrate, a housing mounted over the top surface of the flexible circuit substrate, and a lens unit coupled to the housing. In an example embodiment, the camera module includes a stiffener formed directly over a plurality of electrical components mounted on the top surface of the flexible circuit substrate. In another example embodiment, the bottom surface of the flexible circuit substrate defines a recessed portion whereon the image capture device is flip-chip mounted. A disclosed method for manufacturing camera modules includes providing a flexible circuit tape having a plurality of discrete circuit regions, providing a plurality of image capture devices, flip-chip mounting each image capture device on an associate one of the discrete circuit regions, providing a plurality of housings, and mounting each housing on an associate one of the discrete circuit regions.

In the event of a failure of a first electric motor drive signal generator, e.g., the microcomputer, which generates a first electric motor drive signal for performing a feedback control, a second electric motor drive signal generator, e.g., a PWM signal generator, which is made up of discrete circuit components, directly converts a steering torque signal into a second electric motor drive signal. An electric motor, which generates the assistive steering force, is driven by the second electric motor drive signal.

A ballast (20) for powering one or more gas discharge lamps (70,72,74,76) comprises an inverter (200) and a lamp fault protection circuit (400). Inverter (200) has an operating frequency that is load-dependent. Lamp fault protection circuit (400) monitors an electrical signal within inverter (200). In response to a change in the fundamental frequency of the electrical signal, such as what occurs when a lamp is removed, when a lamp approaches the end of its operating life, or when an arcing condition occurs at one or more of the ballast output connections (302,304,306,308,310), lamp fault protection circuit (400) disables the inverter (200) for a predetermined shutdown period. Lamp fault protection circuit (400) also provides a restart function for periodically attempting to ignite and operate the lamps. Additionally, in response to a sustained fault condition, lamp fault protection circuit (400) increases the predetermined shutdown period so as to minimize any undesirable effects due to the restart function. Lamp fault protection circuit (400) is preferably realized using a suitable microcontroller integrated circuit (420) with associated discrete circuitry, and is especially well-suited for use in ballasts for powering multiple lamps via a current-fed self-oscillating inverter and an isolated parallel resonant output circuit.

A method, system and apparatus are provided for effecting peak power reduction of a communication signal. In particular, the method achieves peak power reduction by generating an out of band peak power reduction (OBPPR) signal; which reduces the peaks of the waveform. The OBPPR signal can be generated at baseband, IF or RF. The method can be implemented in the digital domain using FPGA, DSP or ASIC or can be implemented in the analog domain using discrete circuitry, RFIC's or MMIC's or multi-chip modules. The method does not introduce significant amounts of EVM or sacrifice any capacity and as such offers considerable advantages compared to current state of the art methods. Furthermore, the method can be combined and is approximately additive with existing power reduction methods to effect greater levels of peak power reduction. The inventor has demonstrated a system which takes an OFDM waveform with a PAPR of 7.16 dB as an input, and produces an output waveform with a PAPR of 4.5 dB, while introducing very negligible amounts of EVM. The inventor has also demonstrated a two carrier OFDM transmitter as well as a Multi-Carrier GSM transmitter with 8 carriers, where the OBPPR signal was able to reduce the peak to average power ratio of the waveform from 9 dB to 2.8 dB and from 9.5 dB to 4.2 dB respectively.

The invention discloses a laser speckle blood stream imaging processing system and method based on SOC (System on Chip) / IP (Internet Protocol) solution. The process of acquiring, processing and displaying a laser speckle blood stream image is completely implemented by a hardware circuit; and a multistage production line technique and a parallel processing unit are introduced into the design of the processing core, so that the system can implement laser speckle blood stream imaging real-time processing at video rate at lower clock frequency (about 50MHz). The scheme greatly reduces the power consumption and volume of the laser speckle blood stream imaging system, and provides a design method of a portable laser speckle blood stream imaging instrument. The scheme is implemented by an IP core designed according to hardware description language, and can be implemented by a discrete circuit element, an FPGA (field programmable gate array) and an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) chip.

Apparatus are described for a pair of MOSFET power transistors, a MOSFET driver, and an idealized circuit layout utilized in a power stage such as that of a power conversion system. The power stage comprises a pair of MOSFET transistors having substantially identical electrical characteristics and complementary package configurations for simplifying and optimizing the layout of the power stage on a single side or layer of a printed circuit board. The ideal layout effectively avoids parasitic circuit components, minimizes layout area and costs, and permits operation at higher switching frequencies. A new MOSFET transistor pin configuration is also described that is essentially a functional mirror or functional complement of an existing MOSFET transistor pin configuration to provide the complementary package configurations and the optimized PCB layout. A customized MOSFET driver pin configuration further optimizes the power stage layout by arranging the pins of the driver to coordinate with those of the MOSFET transistor pair.

The invention relates to the field of electronics, more particularly to the wire bonds incorporated into an integrated circuit package such as a quad flat pack, a ball grid array or hybrid style module. The present invention takes the normally undesirable wire bond inductance and uses it in an operational circuit where positive inductance is required. The circuit in which the wire bond inductance is used is located primarily in the integrated circuit die housed in the integrated circuit package, but may also include off-die components. In one example, a wire bond is used as the required series inductance in a discrete circuit impedance inverter which consists of two shunt-to-ground negative inductances and one series positive inductance. One of the negative inductances is located on-die, while the other is located off-die.

A transmit / receive filter includes a substrate, an antenna terminal, a transmit filter assembly arranged on a first substrate portion, an output of the transmit filter assembly being connected to the antenna terminal, a receive filter assembly arranged on a second substrate portion, and a discrete phase shifter arranged on a third substrate portion, the discrete phase shifter being formed of discrete circuit elements and an input of the receive filter assembly being connected to the antenna terminal via the discrete phase shifter, the discrete phase shifter being formed to set a predetermined phase relation to decouple the receive filter assembly from the transmit filter assembly.

A Fourier transform processor utilizing discrete circuits each of which is configurable for processing a wide range of sample sizes. A single pipeline supports multiplexed bi-directional transformations between for example the time and frequency domains. In an embodiment of the invention the Fourier Transform processor may be implemented as part of a digital signal processor (DSP). In this embodiment the DSP may implement both the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) across a wide range of sample sizes and X-DSL protocols. Multiple channels, each with varying ones of the X-DSL protocols can be handled in the same session.

A semiconductor component has interface functions between the controller and the power components of power converters, suitable for gating semiconductor switches. In particular, the semiconductor component serves to gate IGBT and MOSFET power switches in low and medium performance three-phase bridge circuits and integrates signal processing (12), level conversion (16) and amplification (gate driver) (17), error recognition, such as short-circuit monitoring by means of VCE detection (19) and operating voltage monitoring (21) as well as error processing (15) for several power semiconductor switches. The advantages of this gating IC in comparison with hybrid or discrete solutions consist of the high integration density of various digital, analogue and driver functions which result in a reduction in the number of discrete components, which means a lower failure rate of the system and lower costs. Another important consideration is the improvement of switching characteristics thanks to monolithic integration. The integrated circuit is less susceptible to interference voltage and has a lower temperature drift than discrete circuits.

A discrete circuit component having an up-right circuit die with lateral electrical connections. The component comprises a substrate having a pair of electrically conductive traces, and a circuit die is planted between the pair of consecutive traces, wherein one electrode of the circuit die on the surface thereof vertical to the substrate is electrically bonded to one of the conductive trace immediately next thereto, while the other electrode of the circuit die on the opposite surface thereof vertical to the substrate is electrically bonded to the other of the pair of conductive traces immediately next thereto. A body of electrical insulation material hermetically seals the circuit die, and a pair of surface electrodes formed on the surface of the body of insulation material are each electrically connected to the corresponding one of the pair of electrically conductive traces extending from the circuit die.

The invention relates to a system and a method for identifying automation components, particularly sensors, actuators and wiring components. According to the invention, each component (sensor, actuator, cable, compensation box, etc.) that is to be identified is equipped with an identification unit in which a code for identifying the automation component is stored and which outputs said identification code when being activated. Preferably, the identification unit comprises an electronic circuit (e.g. an RFID chip or a discreet circuit) while being provided with galvanically insulating (inductive, capacitive, radio-based) or galvanically conducting coupling to the component that is to be identified. The identification unit can be subsequently mounted on a component or can be inseparably connected thereto already during the production of the component.

A ballast (20) for powering one or more gas discharge lamps (70,72,74,76) comprises an inverter (200), an output circuit (300), and an arc protection circuit (400). Arc protection circuit (400) monitors an electrical signal within the output circuit (300). When an arcing condition occurs at the ballast output connections (302,304,306,308,310), the electrical signal includes a high frequency component having a fundamental frequency that is much greater than the normal operating frequency of the inverter (200). In response to the high frequency component exceeding a predetermined threshold, arc protection circuit (400) disables the inverter (200) for a predetermined shutdown period. Arc protection circuit (400) also provides a restart function for periodically attempting to ignite and operate the lamps. Arc protection circuit (400) is preferably realized using a microcontroller integrated circuit (440) with associated discrete circuitry, and is especially well-suited for use in ballasts for powering multiple lamps via a current-fed self-oscillating inverter and an isolated parallel resonant output circuit.

A novel design and method for manufacturing camera modules is disclosed. The camera module includes a flexible circuit substrate, an image capture device flip-chip mounted to the bottom surface of the flexible circuit substrate, a housing mounted over the top surface of the flexible circuit substrate, and a lens unit coupled to the housing. In an example embodiment, the camera module includes a stiffener formed directly over a plurality of electrical components mounted on the top surface of the flexible circuit substrate. In another example embodiment, the bottom surface of the flexible circuit substrate defines a recessed portion whereon the image capture device is flip-chip mounted. A disclosed method for manufacturing camera modules includes providing a flexible circuit tape having a plurality of discrete circuit regions, providing a plurality of image capture devices, flip-chip mounting each image capture device on an associate one of the discrete circuit regions, providing a plurality of housings, and mounting each housing on an associate one of the discrete circuit regions.

A method and apparatus are disclosed to aid a transceiver chip, in a serial data communications system, in recovering from a system-side, out-bound data clocking problem. If a problem with a primary clock signal, used to clock data from a system-side of a transceiver chip through at least a part of an out-bound data path of the transceiver chip, is detected, then a more reliable secondary clock signal is substituted for the primary clock signal. Once it is determined that the primary clock signal has recovered, the primary clock signal is switched back to and certain discrete circuits of the out-bound data path of the transceiver chip are automatically reset in hardware without the need for system level intervention to avoid any problems due to clock glitches on the primary clock signal during the switching.

A helical antenna (100) forming an integrated notch filter includes a first helical radiating element (101) attached to a second helical radiating element (103). The second helical radiating element is one quarter wavelength of a resonant operating frequency. The helical antenna (100) forms a notch filter through the use of intrinsic capacitance and inductance in both radiating elements. The invention provides an integrated notch filter for attenuating a predetermined range of radio frequency (RF) signals presented to the helical antenna (100) without the use of discrete circuit components.

A current regulator for non-isolated, line voltage LED Driver circuits solves the problem of LED flicker caused by line noise in the visible frequency range. In one aspect of the invention, LED flicker frequency may be increased beyond the line frequency. In another aspect, line voltages in excess of LED voltage ratings may be tolerated. The driver may be implemented using discrete circuit elements or in software and utilizes separate current regulation for different segments of an AC line voltage cycle.

The invention discloses an electrical control management unit for engine fuel gas. The electrical control management unit comprises a main control unit as well as an ignition drive and ignition feedback circuit, an oil injection drive and fault diagnosis circuit, a low side drive and fault diagnosis circuit, a step motor drive and fault diagnosis circuit, an oxygen sensor heating and fault diagnosis circuit, an analog input signal processing unit, a switch value input signal processing unit, a data storage unit, a knock signal processing unit, a frequency signal processing circuit, a power supply and reset management unit and a communication unit which are connected with the main control unit respectively. According to the electrical control management unit, crankshaft signal processing circuits in the power supply and reset management unit, the communication unit and the frequency signal input unit are changed to integrated combination from discrete chips; not only are three discrete circuit units reduced, but also the consumption of integrated chips is remarkably reduced, so that the purpose of reducing the cost is achieved; meanwhile, an oxygen sensor heating drive circuit controlled by the integrated chips is changed to be built by discrete devices to improve the heating drive capability.

A semi-circular LED array that is comprised of independent high intensity LED components and which in combination, will emit a focused single wavelength of highly accurate and precise frequency, in accordance with the Lambertian principle. The resultant combined light source can then be used in combination with an integrating nephelometer, for purposes of precise ambient air quality monitoring. The entire LED array and housing chamber can be easily interchanged to facilitate separate and different wavelength light sources, as required. The user can, when desired, easily remove the entire LED array, and replace with another LED array of different total wavelength capability. Thus a considerably more versatile and accurate light source is provided for use in nephelometry, that can be automatically adjusted via discrete circuitry to provide a precise and accurate specific wavelength light source, which removes any requirement for external light filters, and which provides significantly increased long life and significantly reduced maintenance requirements. The overall effect is a very stable Light Source which produces a fixed wavelength of light with a distribution that is Lambertian.

A system and method for an improved analog front-end system is disclosed. By coupling a switch to the output of a track-and-hold circuit and to the input of a time-discrete circuit, such as an analog-to-digital converter, the time-discrete circuit can be disconnected from the track-and-hold circuit during the track mode of the track-and-hold circuit. This improved system reduces the load of the T / H circuit from the full input capacitance of the time-discrete circuit to the smaller parasitics of the switch thereby providing a T / H circuit with lower power consumption and smaller area while maintaining high speed and high accuracy. When the time-discrete circuit is an analog-to-digital converter, the system and method may also include a second shorted switch coupled between the first switch and the analog-to-digital converter for canceling the charge injection of the first switch and thereby enabling the analog-to-digital converter to convert an analog signal to a digital signal during the track phase of the track-and-hold circuit.

A discrete circuit component has copper block electrodes and that utilizes a simple copper substrate as the basis for the component. The component is made by providing an electrode separation hole preformed in the main substrate. The electrode separation hole results in a simple fabrication for the construction of the discrete component product. With the presence of the electrode separation hole, two solid blocks of copper automatically come into shape for each fabricated device at the final phase of production when each device is cut loose from the main production matrix.

The invention relates to package technology for electronic circuit, which comprises: first, preparing electronic component array or discrete circuit of combined circuit with electrical characteristics output by location frame; second, laying a metal sheath or nonmetal case to the discrete circuit; third, pouring epoxy resin inside shell to package; fourth, drying the resin, inverting the poured component to fix on large print board by screw and supporting hole; finally, fixing a plurality of discrete modules on substrate to form a circuit integer by interconnection with wire. This invention cuts device volume, improves reliability, and has some economical benefit.