Abstract: A telephone system for a motor vehicle includes a transmit/receive unit that transmits data over a wireless communication channel, and receives data over the wireless communication channel and provides a received signal. The system also includes a control unit that communicates with the transmit/receive unit; a first memory device; and a computing device. The computing device receives the received signal and automatically stores the received signal data in the first memory device when the telephone system is configured in a stand-by mode, which allows incoming data to be stored in the memory device while selectively preventing the transmission of outgoing calls originated by the control unit to the transmit/receive unit. Data can be sent to the motor vehicle telephone system and can be stored there for retrieval by the operator when he returns to the vehicle. The data may include audio and/or video data.

Abstract: To detect the rotational speed and angular position of a rotating wheel, a non-contact sensor (e.g., an optical sensor or a Hall sensor) scans scan marks on the wheel, and generates a pulse train. The amplitude of the pulses is compared in a comparator with a variable switching threshold. To achieve accurate measurement results, and to compensate for offset and long-term drift of the sensor, the switching threshold is adjusted if one or more of the following conditions is met: (i) the difference between the pulse amplitude and the switching threshold exceeds a fixable first maximum, (ii) the difference of the amplitudes of two successive pulses exceeds a fixable second maximum, (iii) the difference of the frequencies of successive pulses exceeds a fixable third maximum.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for producing a sensor (1), wherein a carrier chip (2) is produced. Said chip is provided with a sensor structure (3) comprising an active sensor surface (4). A material (9) capable of flowing is applied onto carrier chips (2) in such a way that the sensor structure (3) has a thinner layer thickness on said active sensor surface (4) than on the area of the carrier chip (2) which borders on the active sensor surface (4). The material (9) which is capable of flowing is hardened thereafter. The hardened material (9) is subsequently removed by chemical means from the surface which faces said carrier chip (2) until the active sensor surface of the sensor structure is layed bare.

Abstract: A phase-locked loop with a delay element (DLL) is described which is essentially characterized in that the delay element (3) has a chain of a number n delay units (33n), the outputs (34n) of which are fed to a locking monitoring circuit (4) which determines whether the delay time Tdelay of the delay element (3) lies within a range a*Tperiod<Tdelay<b*Tperiod, where 0.5<a<1 and 1<b<2, and wherein the locking monitoring circuit (4) performs a correction of this delay time when this condition is not met.

Abstract: The invention relates to a sensor for measuring ion concentration or gas concentration, with a gas- or ion-sensitive layer (6) that has two sensitive partial areas (20 and 21), two conducting areas (1b and 2b), each coupled capacitively through air gaps (9and 10) with one of the sensitive partial areas (20 and 21), with the capacitances of the couplings being different, and a comparison circuit (1a, 2a, 3, 4, 5) which has at least one first transistor (T1) connected with the first conductive area and a second transistor (T2) connected with the second conductive area, and at least one output at which a signal can be tapped that depends on the potential of sensitive layer (6).

Abstract: A sensor includes a transducer that provides a sensed signal to a signal processing device. The signal processing device switches the operating mode as a function of frequency, such that the switching device is operated in the switched operating mode at low frequencies and in the continuous operating mode at high frequencies. In a preferred embodiment, the transducer is a Hall effect sensing device.

Abstract: Clocking scheme to clock a monolithic integrated circuit, having a basic clock rate (c0) generated by a clock source which is coupled to N intermediate clocks (c1 through cN) which are delayed relative to each other, wherein the individual delays (t) are distributed within a period T of the basic lock rate. Each of the N intermediate clocks (c1 through cN) supplies at least one of M data-processing blocks (D1 through DM). To effect a transfer of data between a transmitting data-processing block (D2) and a receiving data-processing block (D1), the delay of the intermediate clock assigned to the intermediate clock (c2) is greater than the delay of the intermediate clock (c1) assigned to the receiving data-processing block.

Abstract: An interlace-to-progressive scan conversion system comprises: a spatial line averaging prefilter; a motion estimator; a three-stage adaptive recursive filter. The motion estimator comprises: a 3-D recursive search sub-component having a bilinear interpolator; a motion correction sub-component having an error-function including penalties related to the difference between a given candidate vector and a plurality of neighboring vectors; a block erosion sub-component. The motion estimator assumes that motion is constant between fields. The three-stage adaptive recursive filter comprises: a first stage that selects between using static pixels data and moving pixels data from a next field; a second stage that selects a more valid set of data between motion compensated data from a previous field and the pixels selected by the first stage; a third stage that combines an intra-field interpolation with the more valid set of data selected by the second stage.

Abstract: A filter (50) with interconnected modular basic units (10) and with a delay line (51), equipped with takeoff points, to furnish delayed sampling values (x1, . . . , xN; xi) of a digital signal (x). Each basic unit (10) contains a programmable weighting device (11, 12), a linkage device (13, 14), and a delay device (15), which delays the data conducted to it by a single period (T) of the sampling clock pulse or by a simple integer multiple thereof. The filter (50) further contains a programmable control device (52), which switches over or switches off a part of the data inputs (16, 17) of the basic unit (10) to achieve forward and/or backward filtering and/or sign inversion and/or a change of the active filter length.

Abstract: The invention relates to a sensor for measuring a gas concentration or ion concentration which has a substrate (11), a drain (3) formed on the substrate, a source (2) formed on the substrate, a channel area (4) of the substrate located between drain (3) and source (2), a conductive guard ring (1) located outside the channel area, and a sensitive gate layer (8) whose potential depends on the surrounding gas or ion concentration, with an air gap (10) provided between the gate layer and channel area (4). In order to create a sensor that can be made economically and compactly which nevertheless ensures exact measurement of a change in concentration with time, it is provided that surface profiling (7 and 12) be formed between guard ring (1) and channel area (4).

Abstract: The invention relates to a circuit arrangement with two or more circuit sections, which cooperate through a data transfer device. The invention solves the problem of double area expenditure for two memory devices for each receiver, in that the data bus itself takes over the role of one of these memory devices, namely that of the memory device functioning as master. For this it is only necessary to integrate a single memory device on the data bus, which takes over the role of the no longer needed memory device for each data receiver. By saving the memory device associated with each receiver, the semiconductor chip area needed for communication buses can be optimized and the master memory device of the prior art may be replaced by the bus capacitance.

Abstract: To facilitate the operation of an in-vehicle navigation system and to shorten the time required for the otherwise time-consuming entering of the destination by crosshairs by reducing the operating steps required, a general map and an enlarged portion of the general map are displayed simultaneously on a screen. A navigation computer calculates the routes. Map data from general maps and detail maps are stored in a memory. A main computer calculates the portion selectable for example by crosshairs and shown on an enlarged scale, from the data stored in the memory. The general map and the enlarged portion can be moved synchronously with one another on the screen by a graphic control unit.

Abstract: To protect against electrostatic discharges in monolithic integrated circuits in CMOS technology, a lateral thyristor structure is presented which has a much lower firing voltage compared to conventional thyristor structures.

Abstract: A beverage maker 2 comprises a first chamber 4, a second chamber 6 arranged on top of said first chamber 4, with a tube 8 extending down from said second chamber 6 into said first chamber 4 for transferring liquid between the two chambers. The base of the first chamber 4 has a first region 26 at least a portion of which is arranged to boil dry and a second region 28 which is arranged to retain a quantity of liquid after the first region 26 boils dry. The first region 26 is separated from the second region 28 by a wall 30. The underside of the base of the first chamber 26 is provided with one or more sheathed heating elements 32 arranged below the first region 26 of the base and also with a heat transfer member 20 which extends between the first and said second regions of the base. A thermal control 24 has a sensor arranged to detect when the first region of the base boils dry so as to interrupt the power supply to or reduce the heating output of the heating apparatus.

Abstract: An apparatus for analyzing a sample of biologic fluid quiescently residing within a chamber is provided. The apparatus includes a light source, a positioner, a mechanism for determining the volume of a sample field, and an image dissector. The light source is operable to illuminate a sample field of known, or ascertainable, area. The positioner is operable to selectively change the position of one of the chamber or the light source relative to the other, thereby permitting selective illumination of all regions of the sample. The mechanism for determining the volume of a sample field can determine the volume of a sample field illuminated by the light source. The image dissector is operable to convert an image of light passing through or emanating from the sample field into an electronic data format.