Patents Assigned to Benchmarq Microelectronics
  • Patent number: 5965997
    Abstract: A battery charge/discharge monitor circuit (10) is operable to be disposed in a battery pack (12) which can be connected to a battery (13). The monitor circuit (10) is operable to be connected to an external CPU (24) or similar system through a single wire communication port (22) for transferring information back and forth. There is also provided an external signal on a line (30) for indicating charge or discharge activity in the monitor circuit (10). The monitor circuit (10) is operable to collect information regarding the amount of charge input to the battery and the length of time that the charge is input to the battery and also the amount of charge that is removed from the battery and the length of time that the charge is removed. This information is stored in a memory block (62) for later access by the external CPU (24). This system also provides offset information to provide some type of compensation for non-linearities of the part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 1997
    Date of Patent: October 12, 1999
    Assignee: Benchmarq Microelectronics
    Inventors: Milad Alwardi, Wallace Edward Matthews, Dave Heacock, David Louis Freeman
  • Patent number: 5631537
    Abstract: A battery charger/protection device (10) is provided for charging a battery pack (12) comprised of four lithium ion cells. Each of the cells is selectively monitored by examining the voltage thereacross. An overvoltage condition is checked for a cell, an undervoltage condition for a cell is checked and an overcurrent condition for the entire battery pack (12) is checked. This is achieved by comparing the voltage with predetermined threshold voltages during the charging operation. This is a sequential operation wherein each of the batteries is sequentially examined in a continuous manner through the charging operation in accordance with a predetermined scheme. Switches (30) and (28) are provided for terminating a charging operation during charging. During operation, the undervoltage condition can be checked and the charger/protection device (10) placed in a sleep mode. The charger/protection device (10) provides a finite number of terminals for accessing any combination of cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 1995
    Date of Patent: May 20, 1997
    Assignee: Benchmarq Microelectronics
    Inventor: Gene Armstrong
  • Patent number: 5606680
    Abstract: A realtime clock integrated circuit includes a memory (30) that has a plurality of addressable locations therein. The memory (30) has two portions, a lower portion and an upper portion. The lower portion is addressed by the seven least significant bits which are extracted from an input address bus (50). The seven address bits are latched in an address latch (54) for input to the address input of the memory (30). An eighth most significant address bit is received from an external line (64), which is attached to a separate bus on a personal computer other than that of the bus (50). The eighth most significant bit is latched in an address latch (62) for presentation to the most significant bit of the address input memory (30). When this most significant bit is high, the upper portion of the memory (30) is accessed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 1994
    Date of Patent: February 25, 1997
    Assignee: Benchmarq Microelectronics
    Inventors: Jehangir Parvereshi, Frederick G. Broell
  • Patent number: 5600247
    Abstract: A battery detect circuit (32) is provided that is operable to dispose a sense resistor (50) in series with the battery to determine whether the charge is being provided to the battery or being extracted from the battery. The voltage across the sensor resistor (50) is sensed by a voltage/frequency converter (52). The voltage/frequency converter (52) is a differential structure comprised of two integrator structures (102) and (104) that are operable to utilize a switched capacitor configuration to drive comparators on the output thereof. Each of the integrator structures (102) and (104) has associated therewith passive elements and active elements. The integrators (102) and (104) have associated therewith integration capacitors (147) and (149). Additionally, there are two operational amplifiers (143) and (145) that provide the active components of each of the integrators (102) and (104).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 1994
    Date of Patent: February 4, 1997
    Assignee: Benchmarq Microelectronics
    Inventor: Wallace E. Matthews
  • Patent number: 5548204
    Abstract: A reconfigurable integrated circuit chip includes an output terminal (42) which is connected to the output of an inverting amplifier (44). The integrated circuit chip (10) includes an output terminal (46) which is connected to one input of a comparator (22). The other end of comparator (22) is connected to an internal voltage reference device (48). The output of comparator (22) is connected to the input of the inverting amplifier (44). The integrated circuit chip (10) may be configured as a linear regulator when a transconductance device (14) is connected between a DC power supply (12) and a load and an integrator (24) is connected between terminal (42) and the control input of the transconductance device (14). The integrated circuit chip (10) is configured as a switching regulator when a gated switch (14) is connected between a DC power supply (12) and a switching node (65) wherein the gated switch (14) is gated by the signal output by the output terminal (42).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 1994
    Date of Patent: August 20, 1996
    Assignee: Benchmarq Microelectronics
    Inventors: Gene L. Armstrong, II, David L. Freeman
  • Patent number: 5477166
    Abstract: An integrated circuit with programmable output drive/program pins includes a plurality of output pads (30) which are each operable to interface with a separate and dedicated output driver (38). The output driver (38) is operable to drive an LED output device (14) in an operating mode. In a program mode, the driver (38) is disabled and a program buffer (40) enabled. At the same time, the LED output device (14) is disabled such that no impedance is presented to the output pad (30) due to operation of the LED output device (14). A programming resistor (18) is disposed between the pad (30) and one of three program reference voltages. A first program state is represented when the resistor (18) is tied to ground, a second program state is represented when the resistor (18) is tied to an open circuit and a third program state is represented when the resistor (18) is tied to a positive voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 1995
    Date of Patent: December 19, 1995
    Assignee: Benchmarq Microelectronics
    Inventor: Wallace E. Matthews