Patents Assigned to Silicon Laboratories, Inc.
  • Patent number: 11415657
    Abstract: A system and method of determining the angle of arrival or departure using a neural network is disclosed. The system collects a plurality of I and Q samples as a packet containing a constant tone extension is being received. The I and Q samples are used to form I and Q arrays, which are used as the input to the neural network. The neural network produces a first output representative of the azimuth angle and a second output representative of the elevation angle. In certain embodiments, the neural network is capable of detecting a plurality of angles, where, for each angle, there are three outputs, a first output representative of the azimuth angle, a second output representative of the elevation angle and a third output representative of the relative amplitude. In some embodiments, the neural network is configured to determine the carrier frequency offset of an incoming signal as well.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Antonio Torrini, Sebastian Ahmed, Joel Kauppo, Sauli Johannes Lehtimaki
  • Patent number: 11405136
    Abstract: A Viterbi Equalizer having a limited number of stages is disclosed. In some embodiments, the Viterbi Equalizer may have only four stages. The Viterbi Equalizer produces soft decisions, which comprise a final decision and reliability information related to that final decision. The Viterbi Equalizer is able to provide reliability information even if all paths do not converge on the final decision at the last stage. The reliability information is calculated based on if and when the paths in the trellis converge on a final decision. This reliability information can be used downstream, such as by another Viterbi Algorithm block to perform forward error correction. The use of soft decision provides gains of up to several dB in performance. Additionally, the Viterbi Equalizer is low cost and readily implemented in hardware or software.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Guner Arslan, Chester Yu, Mehmood Ur Rehman Awan
  • Patent number: 11402860
    Abstract: In an embodiment, an apparatus includes: an amplifier to compare a reference voltage to a feedback voltage and to output a comparison signal based on the comparison; a first loop circuit coupled to the amplifier to receive the comparison signal and output a first feedback voltage for the amplifier to use as the feedback voltage in a first mode of operation; and a second loop circuit coupled to the amplifier. The second loop circuit may be configured to receive the comparison signal and output a second feedback voltage for the amplifier to use as the feedback voltage in a second mode of operation. The second feedback voltage may be greater than the first feedback voltage, and the second loop circuit may output a regulated voltage based on the comparison signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Ricky Setiawan, Hua Beng Chan, Rex Tak Ying Wong
  • Patent number: 11403496
    Abstract: In an embodiment, an apparatus includes: a sensor to sense real world information; a digitizer coupled to the sensor to digitize the real world information into digitized information; a signal processor coupled to the digitizer to process the digitized information into an image; a discriminator coupled to the signal processor to determine, based at least in part on the image, whether the real world information comprises an anomaly, where the discriminator is trained via a generative adversarial network; and a controller coupled to the discriminator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Javier Elenes, Antonio Torrini
  • Patent number: 11405028
    Abstract: A peak detector including an input transistor, an isolation transistor, at least one load transistor, a buffer, a control transistor, a current source and at least one resistor. The isolation transistor isolates the input and load transistors from the supply voltage for power supply rejection. The buffer, control transistor, current source and resistor(s) bias the input transistor to remain in a saturation region and each load transistor to remain in a triode region. The buffer may be a unity gain buffer. The control transistor may match each load transistor with matching threshold voltages. An input bias circuit may be included to bias an input node to a direct-current voltage. The load transistor(s) may be biased to have so that the output voltage is proportional to a peak voltage of the input node. The peak detector may be configured to detect multiple inputs and may have shared circuitry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey L. Sonntag, Rex Wong Tak Ying, Yushan Jiang
  • Patent number: 11395188
    Abstract: A system and method for detecting the presence of a Bluetooth or Zigbee signal within a short period of time is disclosed. The signal identification circuit has two stages, a first stage that processes windows to determine whether noise is present, and a second stage that processes long windows to determine whether the signal is a particular lower-power network protocol. The signal identification circuit can be configured to detect Bluetooth at 1 Mbps, Bluetooth at 2 Mbps or Zigbee. The signal identification signal may be used to allow a lower-power network controller to coexist with a high duty cycle WiFi controller. The signal identification circuit may also be used for other functions, such as powering on a lower-power network controller, determining CCA, or determining which channel a packet is being transmitted on.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Guner Arslan, Yan Zhou, He Gou
  • Patent number: 11392166
    Abstract: A system receives a first clock signal with a first frequency and a second clock signal having a second frequency lower than the first frequency. The system generates a new second clock signal aligned with the first clock signal based on a known phase/frequency relationship between the clock signals. A counter counts cycles of the first clock signal. The system generates a new second clock signal with an edge aligned with a first clock signal when the counter reaches a predetermined count value and the system resets the counter. A window opens that includes a time period when the edge of the first clock signal is expected. If an edge of the first clock signal is detected outside of the window, the counter is reset responsive to the detected edge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventor: Vivek Sarda
  • Patent number: 11387857
    Abstract: A wireless device including a receiver circuit coupled to a radio frequency receiver node, a frequency selective attenuator including an inductor and a first capacitor coupled in series to the radio frequency receiver node, and a second capacitor coupled in parallel with the first capacitor. The first capacitor has a first capacitance based on a blocker frequency and the second capacitor has a second capacitance that linearizes the frequency selective attenuator. A method of linearizing a frequency selective attenuator including detecting presence of a blocker signal, activating and programming a capacitor of the frequency selective attenuator to reduce a strength of the blocker signal, determining a frequency difference between the blocker signal and a receive frequency, and coupling a second capacitor to the frequency selective attenuator to linearize the frequency selective attenuator when the frequency difference is no more than an attenuation threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Arup Mukherji, Vitor Pereira, Jeffrey A. Tindle, Mustafa H. Koroglu, Terry Lee Dickey
  • Patent number: 11381267
    Abstract: In one aspect, an apparatus includes: a fast Fourier transform (FFT) engine to receive orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) samples of one or more OFDM symbols and convert the one or more OFDM samples into a plurality of frequency domain carriers; and a tone cancellation circuit coupled to the FFT engine to receive the one or more OFDM samples and generate a plurality of frequency carriers for the one or more OFDM samples, identify a highest magnitude frequency carrier of the plurality of frequency carriers, and remove tone interference from the OFDM samples based at least in part on the highest magnitude frequency carrier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventor: Alexander Kleinerman
  • Publication number: 20220209974
    Abstract: A mesh receiver has a wakeup receiver for reception of a wakeup sequence formed by keyed RF or a sequence of wireless packets and gaps, a transmitter forming low speed RF wakeup sequence to other mesh stations, a mesh receiver for reception of high speed WLAN packets, the transmitter sending a wireless ACK packet in response to a wakeup sequence, the mesh receiver thereafter receiving wireless packets from a remote station, the mesh transmitter sending an ACK, the mesh station thereafter identifying a next hop station, and sending a wakeup sequence to that station, after receipt of an ACK, sending the data, the mesh receiver and mesh transmitter thereafter going to sleep.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2022
    Publication date: June 30, 2022
    Applicant: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Partha Sarathy MURALI, Ajay MANTHA, Nagaraj Reddy ANAKALA, Subba Reddy KALLAM, Venkat MATTELA
  • Patent number: 11375463
    Abstract: In an embodiment, an apparatus includes a transceiver with a receiver signal processing path and a transmitter signal processing path. The receiver signal processing path is to receive and process a message. The apparatus further includes a controller coupled to the transceiver to obtain information regarding the message and to determine, based at least in part on the information, a transmit power level for a next message to be sent from the transceiver according to a machine learning model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Shorty, Lucas Balling
  • Patent number: 11374600
    Abstract: In one example, an apparatus includes: a radio frequency (RF) receiver to receive an RF signal; a media access control (MAC) circuit to receive data and output MAC-processed data according to a clock signal that is phase delayed with respect to a source clock signal when the RF receiver is active; and an interference mitigation circuit to receive the MAC-processed data and provide the MAC-processed data to a physical circuit resynchronized to the source clock signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Saroshan David, Michael Johnson, Paul Zavalney
  • Patent number: 11374555
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a tuning network includes: a controllable capacitance; a first switch coupled between the controllable capacitance and a reference voltage node; a second switch coupled between the controllable capacitance and a third switch; the third switch coupled between the second switch and a second voltage node; a fourth switch coupled between the second voltage node and a first inductor; the first inductor having a first terminal coupled to the fourth switch and a second terminal coupled to at least the second switch; and a second inductor having a first terminal coupled to the second terminal of the first inductor and a second terminal coupled to the controllable capacitance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Ruifeng Sun, Abdulkerim Coban
  • Patent number: 11368359
    Abstract: A system and method for remotely monitoring and analyzing devices on a wireless network, such as a ZIGBEE® network, is disclosed. The devices store event logs in a memory device whenever certain events occurs. These event logs are transmitted to a gateway device. The gateway device may operate in standalone mode or in network coprocessor (NCP) mode. The gateway device may then decode the event logs into a human readable output. This human readable output may then be uploaded to a server in the cloud, where further analysis of the human readable output may be performed. This information may then be retrieved by remote devices, such as smart phones. In other modes, the event logs are uploaded to the server in the cloud and the decoding is performed in the cloud.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Bharat Raju Dandu, Robert Alexander
  • Patent number: 11366898
    Abstract: In one form, an integrated circuit includes a plurality of electromagnetic fault injection (EMFI) sensors and a security management circuit. Each EMFI sensor includes a sense loop having a conductor around a corresponding portion of logic circuitry whose operation is affected by an electromagnetic pulse, and a detector circuit coupled to the sense loop and having an output for providing a pulse detection signal in response to a pulse of at least a predetermined magnitude. The security management circuit performs a protection operation to secure the integrated circuit in response to an activation of a corresponding pulse detection signal of one of the plurality of EMFI sensors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey Lee Sonntag, Timothy Thomas Rueger
  • Patent number: 11368203
    Abstract: A system and method for one-way ranging is disclosed. The system comprises a transmitter, also referred to as a tag, transmitting a packet having a sounding sequence. The receiver, also referred to as the locator, receives the sounding sequence. The receiver measures and saves the phase at a plurality of points in time. The sounding sequence has two frequencies, which are additive inverses of one another. A discrete Fourier transform is performed on the plurality of phase measurements to determine the phase of each of the two frequencies. The difference between these two frequencies is related to the time that the packet traveled. Additionally, a calibration of the transmit path and/or receive path may be performed to improve the accuracy of the results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Terry Lee Dickey, Yan Zhou, Wentao Li, Michael Wu
  • Patent number: 11363529
    Abstract: A system and method for detecting and receiving packets that are transmitted over a network that utilizes a plurality of channels is disclosed. The system includes a radio circuit, which can be configured to receive packets over a plurality of channels, a processing unit, and a memory in communication with the processing unit. The processing unit loads a set of operating parameters in the radio circuit, which enables the radio circuit to detect and receive packets on a particular channel. If a preamble is not detected within a predetermined time period, the system hops to a different channel by loading a second set of operating parameters in the radio circuit. This process can be repeated for an arbitrary number of channels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Jake G. Wood, Bryan K. Murawski, Guner Arslan, Logan A. Lucas, Charles A. Weinberger
  • Patent number: 11356158
    Abstract: A device and method for improving the accuracy of angle of arrival and departure computations is disclosed. The device and method rely on manipulation of the antenna switching pattern to achieve an improved calculation of arrival angle. In one embodiment, the device calculates an estimate angle of arrival using conventional methods. The device then determines which of a plurality of different antenna switching pattern yields the more accurate results at this estimated angle of arrival. The AoA measurement is then repeated using the preferred antenna switching pattern. In another embodiment, the device captures the amplitude and/or phase of the signal from each antenna element. The device then sorts these antenna elements and defines a preferred antenna switching pattern based on the sort list. The AoA measurement is then performed using the preferred antenna switching pattern. In another embodiment, neural networks may be utilized to determine the preferred antenna switching pattern.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventor: Sauli Johannes Lehtimaki
  • Patent number: 11353903
    Abstract: A voltage reference circuit that can operate in a large supply voltage range with high PSRR, that dissipates low-power for a given output noise, and that has a low temperature-coefficient (TC) across a wide-temperature range. The voltage reference circuit does not require any calibration for low TC and high PSRR, occupies a relatively small circuit area, may be used without additional supply filtering in noisy or high-ripple supply environments, and is more robust against device mismatch effects particularly compared to designs based on sub-threshold operations. The voltage reference circuit is a special form of constant transconductance circuit that uses current mirror ratios that are chosen to achieve high PSSR and low noise properties. The device saturation voltage may be chosen so that flat temperature characteristics may be achieved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventor: Abdulkerim L Coban
  • Patent number: 11356157
    Abstract: A device and method for improving the accuracy of angle of arrival and departure computations is disclosed. The device and method rely on manipulation of the antenna switching pattern to achieve an improved calculation of arrival angle. In one embodiment, the device calculates an estimate angle of arrival using conventional methods. The device then determines which of a plurality of different antenna switching pattern yields the more accurate results at this estimated angle of arrival. The AoA measurement is then repeated using the preferred antenna switching pattern. In another embodiment, the device captures the amplitude and/or phase of the signal from each antenna element. The device then sorts these antenna elements and defines a preferred antenna switching pattern based on the sort list. The AoA measurement is then performed using the preferred antenna switching pattern. In another embodiment, neural networks may be utilized to determine the preferred antenna switching pattern.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventor: Sauli Johannes Lehtimaki