Single-Wire Serial Interface Using Duty-Cycle Data Encoding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional single wire interfaces are inefficient in data transmission, leading to slow transmission speeds and increased power consumption due to the use of pulse counting techniques, especially when handling large amounts of data.
Innovation Solution
A serial interface apparatus that detects the time periods of different logic levels in an input signal, computes the duty cycle, and generates output signals based on this computation, allowing for efficient data transfer using a single wire or pin, thereby improving clock use efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If pulse counting technique is used in conventional single wire interface, then data transmission can be achieved, but transmission speed becomes slow and power consumption increases when large amount of data is transmitted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameter representation method from pulse counting (where each data bit requires multiple clock pulses) to duty cycle encoding (where data is represented by the ratio of high to low time periods in a single clock cycle). This parameter transformation enables faster transmission with reduced clock switching, directly resolving the contradiction between transmission speed and power consumption.
2Productivity
If pulse counting technique is used, then data can be transmitted, but clock use efficiency becomes low when large amount of data is transmitted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs periodic action by using regular clock cycles with varying duty cycles to encode data. Each clock period carries one data bit through duty cycle variation, eliminating the need for multiple pulses per bit. This periodic encoding scheme significantly improves clock use efficiency and reduces transmission time for large data sets.
3Device complexity
If conventional single wire interface is used with pulse counting, then simple design is achieved, but transmission efficiency decreases with increasing data amount
Solution Approach 1:
The patent maintains the simplicity of the single wire interface design while improving transmission efficiency by changing how data is encoded in the existing signal parameter (duty cycle). This approach avoids complex additional hardware or protocols, preserving design simplicity while achieving high transmission efficiency even for large data amounts.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus for transferring serial data (e.g., a serial interface using a single wire) generally includes a detector configured to detect a first level time period and a second level time period of an input signal, and a computing unit configured to compute a duty or duty cycle of the input signal and generate an output signal based on the duty or duty cycle.