Abstract: A system can be configured to control an equalizer circuit to equalize a data signal without requiring prior knowledge of the data signal's data rate. In an example, the system includes an equalizer circuit configured to equalize a data signal based on an equalizer control signal to produce an equalized signal, and a pattern detector configured to detect a specified data pattern in the equalized signal at each of multiple sampling rates. A control circuit can be configured to generate a preferred equalization control signal based on a sampling rate, selected from the multiple sampling rates, at which the pattern detector detects the specified data pattern in the equalized signal.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a motor-driven mechanical system with a detection system to measure properties of a back channel and derive oscillatory characteristics of the mechanical system. Uses of the detection system may include calculating the resonant frequency of the mechanical system and a threshold drive DTH required to move the mechanical system from the starting mechanical stop position. System manufacturers often do not know the resonant frequency and DTH of their mechanical systems precisely. Therefore, the calculation of the specific mechanical system's resonant frequency and DTH rather than depending on the manufacturer's expected values improves precision in the mechanical system use. The backchannel calculations may be used either to replace or to improve corresponding pre-programmed values.

Abstract: Circuits are used to sense and compensate or mitigate the imbalance errors, hence restoring the intended benefits of differential processing. In particular, the impedance mismatch between the positive and negative branches of a balanced system is sensed by digitizing an error voltage developed by injecting suitable common mode stimuli. The mismatch is then trimmed out by introducing and properly setting up a digitally controlled impedance that counters the original impedance mismatch and hence rebalances the signal path on-situ and prior to exercising the signal processing chain.

Abstract: A system, device, and method for binding metadata, such as information derived from the output of a biometric sensor, to hardware intrinsic properties by obtaining authentication-related metadata and combining it with information pertaining to a root of trust, such as a physical unclonable function. The metadata may be derived from a sensor such as a biometric sensor, the root of trust may be a physical unclonable function, the combination of the metadata and root of trust information may employ a hash function, and output from such a hash process may he used as an input to the root of trust. The combined information can he used in interactive or non-interactive authentication.

Abstract: Provided herein are apparatus and methods for power enhancement of self-biased distributed amplifiers with gate bias networks. By sampling output power a gate bias network with a filter network can adjust gate bias so as to improve the P1 dB compression point and the Psat saturation power level of a self-biased distributed amplifier. Advantageously the filter network can be derived using passive components thereby making it an easy to implement and cost effective approach to improve linearity and output power.

Abstract: The disclosed technology relates to electronics, and more particularly, to protection devices that protect circuits from transient electrical events such as electrical overstress/electrostatic discharge. A protection device includes a semiconductor substrate having formed therein at least two wells and a deep well underlying and contacting the at least two wells. The device additionally includes a first PN diode formed in one of the at least two wells and having a first heavily doped region of a first conductivity type and a first heavily doped region of a second conductivity type, and includes a second PN diode formed in one of the at least two wells and having a second heavily doped region of the first conductivity type and a second heavily doped region of the second conductivity type. The device additionally includes a first PN diode and the second PN diode are electrically shorted by an electrical shorting structure to form a first plurality of serially connected diodes having a threshold voltage.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure provide code readers for reading codes provided as patterns imprinted on objects. Light interacts with a pattern by e.g. being reflected from or transmitted through the pattern, and at least some of the light that has interacted with the pattern is incident on photosensitive element(s) of one or more photodetectors of a code reader. The code reader employs centroid-measuring photodetector(s), i.e. photodetectors that detect light in such a manner that centroid of a pattern can be obtained directly from the photocurrents generated as a result of the photosensitive elements detecting light incident thereon. The code reader is then configured to process the detected light to determine a centroid of the pattern from the detected light and to decode data encoded in the pattern based on a position of the centroid. Such code readers are substantially less complex than camera-based devices and avoid mechanical scanning.

Abstract: Micromachined inertial devices are presented having multiple linearly-moving masses coupled together by couplers that move in a linear fashion when the coupled masses exhibit linear anti-phase motion. Some of the described couplers are flexural and provide two degrees of freedom of motion of the coupled masses. Some such couplers are positioned between the coupled masses. Using multiple couplers which are arranged to move in linearly opposite directions during linear anti-phase motion of the coupled masses provides momentum-balanced operation.

Abstract: Micromachined inertial devices are presented having multiple linearly-moving masses coupled together by couplers that move in a linear fashion when the coupled masses exhibit anti-phase motion. The couplers move in opposite directions of each other, such that one coupler on one side of the movable masses moves in a first linear direction and another coupler on the opposite side of the movable masses moves in a second linear direction opposite the first linear direction. The couplers ensure proper anti-phase motion of the masses.

Abstract: Micromachined inertial devices are presented having multiple linearly-moving masses coupled together by couplers that move in a linear fashion when the coupled masses exhibit anti-phase motion. The couplers move in opposite directions of each other, such that one coupler on one side of the movable masses moves in a first linear direction and another coupler on the opposite side of the movable masses moves in a second linear direction opposite the first linear direction. The couplers ensure proper anti-phase motion of the masses.

Abstract: A microfluidic ion detector for detecting heavy metal ions in liquid and particulate matter from gas samples is described. The microfluidic ion detector includes a sample extraction structure for extracting sample ions from a sample liquid or extracting sample ions from the particulate matter of a gas sample, a separation structure for separating sample ions of different types once extracted, and a detection structure for detecting the sample ions. The microfluidic ion detector also includes a reference reservoir providing a reference ion against which the sample may be calibrated based on the operation of the separation structure. A portable, self-calibrating ion detector may be realized by including the described components on a single substrate.

Abstract: A voltage regulator is provided comprising: a pass transistor that includes a first node coupled to receive an input voltage and a second node coupled to provide a regulated voltage and a control node; an amplifier circuit coupled to produce a control voltage on a control line that is coupled to control a voltage at the control node of the pass transistor, based at least in part upon a reference voltage and the regulated voltage; a switch configured to transition between a first switch state in which the switch couples the control line to a turn-off voltage having a value to turn off the pass transistor and a second switch state in which the switch decouples the control line from the turn-off voltage; and a switch control circuit configured to maintain the switch in the first switch state during a first time interval while the input voltage ramps up and to transition the switch to the second switch state after the first time interval.

Abstract: A power converter circuit can be operated in a constant-current mode when a monitored output current exceeds a specified over-current threshold. A value representing an output voltage of the power converter circuit can be compared to a soft-start voltage reference value. The soft-start voltage reference value can be set (or reset) to a value representing the output voltage of the power converter when the difference between the soft-start voltage reference value and the value representing the output voltage of the power converter is greater than a specified threshold. The output voltage of the power converter can be regulated using the soft-start voltage reference value as a target voltage including ramping the soft-start voltage reference value at specified rate to maintain the soft-start voltage reference value within a specified range of a specified regulated output voltage value, such as to constrain a slew rate of the regulated output voltage.

Abstract: An isolator system has an isolator that generates differential isolator signals and a receiver that generates digital data representative of signals received from the isolator. The system also may include an RC filter coupled between the isolator and the receiver. During operation, the filter may distribute transient signals across various circuit paths in the isolator, only some of which are coupled to the receiver inputs. Over time, the filter may attenuate transient contributions at the receiver inputs. In this manner, the filter may limit effects of these common mode transients.

Abstract: A control circuit eliminates the Zeno phenomenon in a power supply controller while transferring control from a primary side controller to a secondary side controller. The primary side controller generates a feedback voltage (e.g., threshold voltage) that is input to a comparator. An output node voltage of the control circuit is fed back to the linear amplifier to be compared with the threshold voltage. While the output node voltage is less than the threshold voltage, a charge pump is coupled to the output node of the control circuit. After the output node voltage has toggled around the threshold voltage a number of times, the comparator output node is coupled to the output node of the control circuit and the charge pump is decoupled from the output node. When the output node voltage has discharged to be equal to the threshold voltage, control is handed off from the primary side controller to the secondary side controller.

Abstract: A method for testing a DAC comprising controlling the DAC digitally to cause it to produce a known desired analog output, for example a fixed amplitude sine wave; determining the duration of fixed voltage segments of the actual output of the DAC and using the duration of the fixed voltage segments to assess or determine performance of the DAC.

Abstract: A device authentication system for use with an authenticatable device having a physically-unclonable function and constructed to, in response to input, of challenge C, internally generate an output O characteristic to the PUF and the challenge C, and configured to: i) upon receiving challenge C, generate a corresponding commitment value that depends upon a private value r, and ii) upon receiving an authentication query that includes the challenge C and a nonce, return a zero knowledge proof authentication value that corresponds to the commitment value.

Abstract: A resilient device authentication system for use with one or more managed devices each including a physical unclonable function (PUF), comprises: one or more verification authorities (VA) each including a processor and a memory loaded with a complete verification set (CVS) that includes hardware part-specific data associated with the managed devices' PUFs and metadata, the processor configured to create a limited verification set (LVS) through one-way algorithmic transformation of hardware part-specific data together with metadata from the loaded CVS so as to create a LVS representing both metadata and hardware part-specific data adequate to redundantly verify all of the hardware parts associated with the LVS; and one or more provisioning entities (PE) each connectable to a VA and including a processor and a memory loaded with a LVS, and configured to select a subset of the LVS so as to create an application limited verification set (ALVS).

Abstract: In a cascaded integrator comb (CIC) filter, a time-varying gain is added before the last integrating stage transforming its sub optimal boxcar impulse response into an FIR filter of arbitrary length. Make the coefficients sparse and taking them from a set of small integers leads to an efficient hardware implementation that does not compromise any of the essential CIC filter characteristics especially the overflow handling. The proposed sparse CIC structure can improve the worst case stop band attenuation by as much as 10 dB while occupying 77% of the chip area and consuming 30% less power compared to a standard a 5th order CIC filter, and reducing the overall bit growth of the filter and the amount of high rate operations. Design examples are given illustrating the advantages and flexibility of the proposed structure.

Abstract: Systems and methods for synchronous demodulation using passive sampled analog filtering are disclosed. A system for synchronous demodulation includes an input channel for accepting an input signal, a first passive sampled analog filter for filtering the input signal, a mixer for mixing the filtered input signal and outputting a mixed signal, a second passive sampled analog filter for filtering the mixed signal, and an output channel for outputting the filtered mixed signal.