Abstract: A tamper-resistant semiconductor device (5;20;30;40;50;60) which includes a plurality of electronic circuits formed on a circuitry side (6) of a substrate (7) having an opposite side which is a backside (8) of the semiconductor device, and comprises at least one light-emitting device (9a-f;21) and at least one light-sensing device (10a-f;22a-b) provided on the circuitry side (6) of the semiconductor device. The light-emitting device (9a-f;21) is arranged to emit light, including a wavelength range for which the substrate (7) is transparent, into the substrate towards the backside (8), and the light-sensing device (10a-f;22a-b) is arranged to sense at least a fraction of the emitted light following passage through the substrate (7) and reflection at the backside (8), and configured to output a signal indicative of a reflecting state of the backside, thereby enabling detection of an attempt to tamper with the backside (8) of the semiconductor device (5;20;30;40;50;60).

Abstract: Pixels of an image (200) are coded as color vectors specified by RGB values. The image (200) is filtered by calculating new color vectors for the pixels on a pixel by pixel basis. A new color vector for a subject pixel (201) is calculated from the average of neighbor pixels (203) in a window (202) around the subject pixel (201). A first threshold is calculated from the standard deviation of the color vectors of the neighbor pixels (203) in the window (202). A second threshold is calculated from the median maximum difference between the values defining the color vectors of the respective neighbor pixels (203) in the window (202) and the standard deviation of the values. Only neighbor pixels (203) having a color vector that differs from the color vector of the subject pixel (201) by less than or the same as the first and second thresholds are used in calculation of the new color vector for the subject pixel (201).

Abstract: A radio frequency (RF) circuit is configured for impedance matching, such as for mitigating noise. In connection with an example embodiment, an RF circuit includes a transceiver in a substrate, and a conductive ring-type of material in the substrate and around at least a portion of the transceiver circuit. An upper conductive ring material is over the substrate and separated from the conductive ring-type material by an insulating layer. The upper conductive ring material is configured to generate an inductance that matches input impedance characteristics of the transceiver circuit. In some implementations, the upper conductive ring material connects a gate input pin of the circuit with the gate of an input transistor of an amplifier in the transceiver, and exhibits an impedance that matches the impedance of the input transistor.

Abstract: A low power frequency synthesiser circuit (30) for a radio transceiver, the synthesiser circuit comprising: a digital controlled oscillator (33) configured to generate an output signal (F0) having a frequency controlled by an input digital control word (DCW); a feedback loop (35-38) connected between an output and an input of the digital controlled oscillator, the feedback loop configured to provide the digital control word to the input of the digital controlled oscillator from an error derived from an input frequency control word (FCW) and the output signal; and a duty cycle module (32) connected to the digital controlled oscillator and the feedback loop, the duty cycle module configured to generate a plurality of control signals to periodically enable and disable the digital controlled oscillator for a set fraction of clock cycles of an input reference clock signal (RefClock).

Abstract: A MEMS manufacturing method and device in which a spacer layer is provided over a side wall of at least one opening in a structural layer which will define the movable MEMS element. The opening extends below the structural layer. The spacer layer forms a side wall portion over the side wall of the at least one opening and also extends below the level of the structural layer to form a contact area.

Abstract: A TDMA method of operating a near-field communication system, in which the same synchronous slot is allocated to more than one, non-interfering, transmitters, is disclosed. The power level may be adjusted to minimise interference from unwanted transmitted signals at respective receivers. A near-field communication system operating such a method is also disclosed.

Abstract: A bond wire transformer comprises a plurality of primary bond wires coupled in parallel; and a plurality of secondary bond wires coupled in parallel, each secondary bond wire being spaced apart from and oriented relative to a corresponding primary bond wire so as to achieve a desired mutual inductance between the corresponding primary and secondary bond wires, thereby providing magnetic coupling between the primary and secondary bond wires.

Abstract: A mobile device that incorporates the MIPI D-PHY specification has data lanes for carrying data between electronic modules within the device. The data lanes may incorporate a spaced-one-hot approach for asynchronously receiving a data signal over a two-wire interface. A two-wire receive interface is provided that uses an exclusive-NOR to capture a timing signal along with a set-reset flip-flop which holds the state of the data line so that a D flip-flop that is clocked on the falling edge of the timing signal received from the exclusive-NOR gate can sample the data and provide an accurate asynchronous data output.

Abstract: An energy converter is disclosed in which self oscillation mode operation is improved by a closed loop feedback control. The feedback control utilizes the voltage error from the voltage valley in the drain voltage (Vdrain) of the converter switch (1), to determine an error (E(n)) in the time domain. Control circuitry (61, 62, 63) is used to minimize this time-domain error (E(n)) to optimize the control of the switch mode converter.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for cryptographic authentication in access security systems. The aim of the invention is to provide a software solution. To this end, the method for secured storage of counter states in a non-volatile memory (EEPROM) (10) involves an incrementing (11) process, and the current counter state is updated in only one EEPROM segment following each incrementing process (11), a subsequent access to the EEPROM (10) only being enabled in the event of a successful incrementing (11) of an EEPROM-based counter.

Abstract: A system and method for transmitting a baseband real signal with a non-constant envelope using a polar transmitter involves decomposing a baseband real signal into a non-constant envelope signal of the baseband real signal and a sign signal of the baseband real signal, where the sign signal restores zero crossing regions of the non-constant envelope signal, modulating a carrier signal with the sign signal of the baseband real signal to generate a modulated signal, converting the non-constant envelope signal of the baseband real signal into a voltage signal using a voltage controlled supply regulator, amplifying the modulated signal into an amplified signal based on the voltage signal, and transmitting the amplified signal to an external wireless device.

Abstract: Various embodiments relate to an light-emitting diode (LED) driver and related method that drives various LEDs in an LED string beyond their isolated nominal luminance. Individual LEDs in an LED string may be thermally dependent so that specific LEDs may operate at higher temperatures without degradation. This may include driving specific LEDs beyond isolated nominal luminance when associated LEDs dim below their isolated nominal luminance. Such operation allows the LED to receive higher amounts of current and therefore exhibit higher luminous intensity. A control circuit may monitor the forward voltage and temperature in a feedback loop to ensure that the LEDs in the string are operating below a defined maximum junction temperature. The control circuit may signal a processing unit to adjust adjacent circuits to compensate when the controlled LEDs cannot produce a requested luminance without operating beyond a maximum junction temperature.

Abstract: A method to discriminate a real echo peak from an aliased echo peak comprises: computing ‘a correlation between N samples of a digital data and a copy of the same N samples delayed by a time delay ?1,0 to obtain a first correlation result, time delay ?1,0 being equal to a time interval T between a first and a second distinct power peaks of an estimated channel impulse response, the first peak being the highest power peak within the temporal window, and/or computing—a correlation between the N samples and a copy of the same N samples delayed by a time delay TIFFT-?1,0 to obtain a second correlation result, and deciding whether the second peak is a real echo peak or an aliased echo peak based on the first and/or second correlation results.

Abstract: A joystick module has a joystick and a sensor for generating a signal in response to sensing a magnetic field representative of a position and/or orientation of the joystick. Using a linear dependence of the sensor's sensitivity on a distance between the joystick and the sensor, the sensor's signal representative of a tilt angle of the joystick can be calibrated in a simple manner.

Abstract: Consistent with an example embodiment, there is a semiconductor device with nanowire-type interconnect elements. The semiconductor device comprises a semiconductor substrate with a pn junction formed by a first doped substrate region of a first conductivity type, and a second doped substrate region of an opposite second conductivity type. There is a layer structure on the semiconductor substrate, the layer structure includes a first metal structure which is conductively connected with the first doped substrate region, and further comprising a second metal structure, which is conductively connected with the second doped substrate region. The layer structure allows the transmission of photons with an energy suitable for creating free charge carriers in the first and second doped substrate regions. A third metal structure comprising at least one self-assembled metal dendrite forms an interconnect element between the first and second metal structures.

Abstract: A Gilbert mixer (200) comprising four switching transistors (Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6), two intermediate frequency transistors (Q1, Q2), and one or more DC decoupling components (202). The one or more DC decoupling components (202) are coupled between the switching transistors (Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6) and the intermediate frequency transistors (Q1, Q2) in order to DC decouple the switching transistors (Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6) from the intermediate frequency transistors (Q1, Q2).

Abstract: Disclosed is a class D amplifier comprising a modulation stage having a first input for receiving an input signal and an output for producing a modulated version of the input signal; a plurality of power stages, each power stage being responsive to said modulation stage and comprising a first switch and a second switch coupled in series between a first voltage source and a second voltage source, each power stage comprising an output node between the first switch and the second switch; and a power stage control circuit for measuring the input signal level and enabling a selected number of the power stages as a function of the measured input signal level. A method for controlling such a class D amplifier is also disclosed.

Abstract: An electronic component is provided having a plurality of functionalities. The electronic component comprises a control logic, and a non-volatile storage element. The control logic is coupled to the non-volatile storage element and is adapted for storing values in the non-volatile storage element based on an external input signal to the electronic component, each value being indicative for one or more functionalities of the plurality of functionalities. The control logic is adapted for controlling the availability of the plurality of functionalities based on one or more values stored in the non-volatile storage element and for outputting a confirmation signal being indicative for the availability of the plurality of functionalities.

Abstract: A decoder and method of decoding a sub-band coded digital audio signal. The decoder comprises: an input, for receiving sub-band coefficients for a plurality of sub-bands of the audio signal; an error detection unit (20), adapted to analyze the content of a sequence of coefficients in one of the sub-bands, to derive for each coefficient an indication of whether the coefficient has been corrupted by an error of a predefined type; an error masking unit (30), adapted to generate from the sequence a modified sequence of coefficients for the sub-band, wherein errors of the predefined type are attenuated; a coefficient combination unit (40), adapted to combine the received coefficients and the modified coefficients, in dependence upon the indication of error; and a signal reconstruction unit (50), adapted to reconstruct the audio signal using the combined coefficients.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method of manufacturing a heterojunction bipolar transistor comprising a substrate, an upper region of said substrate comprising an active region of the bipolar transistor bordered by shallow trench insulation, said active region comprising a buried collector region extending to a depth beyond the depth of the shallow trench insulation, the method comprising forming a trench in the substrate adjacent to said active region, said trench extending through the shallow trench insulation; at least partially filling said trench with an impurity; and forming a collector sinker in the substrate by developing said impurity to extend into the substrate to a depth beyond the depth of the shallow trench insulation. An IC comprising a heterojunction bipolar transistor manufactured by this method is also disclosed.