Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Thompson & Knight, LLP
  • Patent number: 7230467
    Abstract: A circuit for generating stable signal edges includes an output driver circuit having a current path for varying a charge on a capacitor in response to an input signal and constant current generation circuitry for maintaining a constant current through the current path of the output driver circuit and varying the charge on the capacitor to produce an output signal with a stable edge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2007
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: Jianhua Gan, Jhonny Wong
  • Patent number: 7229180
    Abstract: Reflector device (10) for use in photography having an openable reflector screen (11) and a screen handle (12), at one end of which handle screen spokes (13) are hinge-mounted, and along which there is mounted so as to be displaceable back and forth a slider member (14), there being hinge-mounted on the slider member (14) bracing spokes (15), the opposite ends of which are joined in articulated manner to the screen spokes (13), the slider member (14) being displaceable back and forth along the screen handle (12) by means of a rope drive (19 or 26).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2007
    Assignee: Bron Elektronik AG
    Inventor: Francois Portmann
  • Patent number: 7212874
    Abstract: A noise shaping system including an inner loop and outer noise shaping loops. The inner noise shaping loop includes an inner loop filter and a quantizer for quantizing an output of the inner loop filter. The outer noise shaping loop includes an outer loop filter having an input receiving feedback from the quantizer of the inner noise shaping loop and an output driving an input of the inner loop filter of the inner noise shaping loop.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2007
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventor: John Laurence Melanson
  • Patent number: 7202746
    Abstract: A multiple-stage operational amplifier including a gain stage for amplifying an input signal and implementing a dominant pole producing a frequency response having a gain roll-off with frequency and a unity gain frequency. An intermediate stage is coupled to an output of the gain stage and has a high input impedance and a low output impedance. A high gain amplifier configured as a low gain output stage using resistive feedback and coupled to an output of the intermediate stage drives an output of the operational amplifier and implements a dominant pole at a frequency substantially higher than the unity gain frequency implemented by the dominant pole implemented the gain stage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2007
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: Murari Kejariwal, Gowtham Vemulapalli, John Laurance Melanson
  • Patent number: 7199744
    Abstract: A method of generating a pulse width modulated data stream includes providing a first clock signal having a first frequency and selecting a divisor from a set of divisors for dividing the first frequency to select a pattern rate of a pulse width modulated data stream and thereby shift in frequency noise generated at the pattern rate during pulse width modulation. The first frequency of the first signal is divided to generate a second signal at the selected pattern rate. Noise shaping and requantizing is performed on the second signal to generate a noise shaped and requantized second signal and the pulse width modulated data stream having patterns at the selected pattern rate is generated in response to the first signal and the noise shaped and requantized second signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2007
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventor: John Laurence Melanson
  • Patent number: 7194036
    Abstract: A method of processing a digital data stream in a digital processing system includes filtering the digital data stream being processed through a delta-sigma modulator having a selected signal transfer function passing a frequency band of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2007
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventor: John Laurence Melanson
  • Patent number: 7190197
    Abstract: Clock signal control circuitry including a selector for selecting between a first clock signal and an inverse of the first clock signal and a phase detector for determining a phase relationship between the first clock signal and the second clock signal and in response causing the selector to select between the first clock signal and the inverse of the first clock signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2007
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: Zhong You, Trenton John Grale
  • Patent number: 7183954
    Abstract: A data converter including a digital volume control for continuously scaling a received stream of digital audio data by a selected factor and a low noise delta-sigma modulator for re-quantizing a scaled digital data stream output from the digital volume control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2007
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: John Laurence Melanson, Jason Powell Rhode
  • Patent number: 7173550
    Abstract: A method of amplitude control in a 1-bit digital system includes the step of scaling the stream of 1-bit data by a scaling factor corresponding to a selected output amplitude. The scaled data is modulated and the resulting modulated, scaled data is converted from digital to analog form.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2007
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: John Laurence Melanson, Jason Powell Rhode
  • Patent number: 7170338
    Abstract: An amplifier including a current source transistor for supplying a current to a node from a voltage rail and an input transistor switching the current at the node in response to an input signal chopped by a chopping signal. A cascode-chopping transistor operating both as a cascode transistor and a chopping transistor couples the node and an amplifier output in response to a bias voltage chopped by the chopping signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2007
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventor: John Christopher Tucker
  • Patent number: 7167119
    Abstract: A method of sampling an input signal in a delta-sigma modulator having at least an integrator stage and a feedback digital-to-analog converter (DAC) stage includes sampling an input signal at a sampling rate by alternately utilizing the two sampling capacitors during two sampling cycles such that the two sampling capacitors are each being utilized at half the rate of the sampling rate. Samples from the two sampling capacitors are summed at the sampling rate at an intermediate node with a feedback samples provided by the feedback DAC stage at the sampling rate to generate output samples which are output from integrator stage at the sampling rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2007
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: Gong Tom Lei, Thuan Luong Nguyen, Daniel John Allen, John Laurence Melanson
  • Patent number: 7161026
    Abstract: A process for producing phenylacetic acid is provided. The process includes combining sodium, chlorobenzene, toluene, and a catalyst to form a suspension. This suspension is mixed to form phenylsodium. Upon boiling, the suspension forms benzylsodium. The suspension is then carbonized and acidified to form phenylacetic acid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2007
    Assignee: Property Development Corporation International, Ltd, Inc.
    Inventors: Alimamed Latif Shabanov, Elmira Mamedem Ramazanova
  • Patent number: 7162506
    Abstract: In a signal processing integrated circuit having an analog to digital converter and a digital filter having a plurality of taps separated in time, when starting a conversion after a reset or a change of input channel, the filter will have an incomplete set of input data as the delayed inputs to an output calculation are all zero from the reset operation. After reset, during the time that data are filling up the filter pipeline, the calculation of an output value will give a result that holds information about the input, but does not present the data with the same scaling and frequency content as the fully settled filter. The integrated circuit selectively provides two modes, on that provides only fully settled data from the filter or and another that provides all data from the filter, including unsettled data. Knowledge about the filter coefficients can be utilized by a user or user process to extract information about the input from the unsettled data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2007
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: Axel Thomsen, Jerome E Johnston, Edwin Angel, Aryesh Amar
  • Patent number: 7158681
    Abstract: The quality of digital images recovered from compressed data in an inter-frame redundancy-removing scheme is enhanced using a self-adaptive feedback scheme in an image compression/decompression system so as to provide for the compensation of the distortion component from prior frame compression in subsequent difference frame compression. Each transmitted frame is stored after a full compress/decompress cycle, and difference data (which includes the inverse of the distortion component from compression of the transmitted frame) representing the difference between the stored frame and the incoming new frame is transmitted. Consequently, the quality of static regions in the recovered images may be improved with each subsequent iteration by taking the distortion component in the prior frame into consideration along with the inter-frame motion information. The feedback loop thus forms a self-adaptive iterative cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2007
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventor: Michael I. Persiantsev
  • Patent number: 7154562
    Abstract: A method of gamma correction includes selecting lower and upper reference curves corresponding to selected reference gamma values. A gamma correction curve is generated from a corresponding gamma correction value and cross-correlated with the upper and lower reference curves to generate a corresponding set of cross-correlation factors. The set of cross-correlation factors are stored and indexed to the corresponding gamma value. An input value is received for gamma correction with the corresponding gamma value. Data from the upper and lower reference curves indexed by the input value are then operated one with the cross-correlation factors to generate a gamma corrected output value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2006
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: Ahsan Chowdhury, Anand Venkitachalam, John Melanson
  • Patent number: 7145486
    Abstract: A method of exchanging data through a serial port includes transmitting data as an output stream of frames defined by edges of a frame clock signal, a first data bit of a current frame transmitted during a time period starting in a preceding frame and extending after an edge of the frame clock signal defining the start of the current frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2006
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: Amiya Anand Chokhawala, Kartik Nanda
  • Patent number: 7142819
    Abstract: A method of controlling noise in a pulse width modulation circuit includes varying a sample frequency and a range of information levels, wherein each sample within a data sample stream at the sample frequency represents a level within the range of information levels, to shift in frequency noise generated at the sample frequency during encoding of the data sample stream into pulse width modulated patterns.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2006
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: Chang Yong Kang, John Laurence Melanson
  • Patent number: 7116721
    Abstract: A feedback noise-shaper of an order of at least three implements a first pole set defining a signal transfer function of a selected corner frequency and a second pole set having at least one pole at a frequency at least twice the selected corner frequency defining a noise transfer function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2006
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: John Laurence Melanson, Heling Yi
  • Patent number: 7113907
    Abstract: A method of controlling a terminal of an integrated circuit includes determining a frequency ratio between a frequency of a signal and a frequency of another signal received by an integrated circuit. A selected signal appearing at a selected terminal of the integrated circuit is selectively interpreted in accordance with an operating mode when the frequency ratio is below a selected value and in accordance with another operating mode when the frequency of the signal is above a selected value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2006
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventor: Bruce Eliot Duewer
  • Patent number: 7110460
    Abstract: A delta-sigma modulator of an order of at least three having a signal transfer function defining a signal low-pass response, the signal transfer function has a numerator and a denominator, the denominator defined by a product of first and second functions defining respective first and second pole sets such that a roll-off frequency of a low-pass response defined by the first pole set is at least twice a roll-off frequency of a low-pass response defined by the second pole set. The delta-sigma modulator also has a noise transfer function defining a noise high-pass response, the noise transfer function having a numerator and a denominator, the denominator defined by the product of the first and second functions. The numerator of the noise transfer function differs from the numerator of the signal transfer function and characterizes the noise high-pass response.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2006
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: John Laurence Melanson, Heling Yi