Abstract: A vertical unipolar component formed in a semiconductor substrate, comprising vertical fingers made of a conductive material surrounded with silicon oxide, portions of the substrate being present between the fingers and the assembly being coated with a conductive layer. The component periphery includes a succession of fingers arranged in concentric trenches, separated from one another by silicon oxide only, the upper surface of the fingers of at least the innermost rank being in contact with said conductive layer.
Abstract: A method of integrated circuit assembly before encapsulation including at least one step of soldering, under mechanical pressure, a first element on a second element, including temporarily maintaining a predetermined spacing, at least partially without solder paste, between the surfaces to be assembled of the first and second elements.
Abstract: A switched-mode power converter, including, between a first end of a main inductive element and a switch, a two-value inductive element automatically switching between its two values.
Abstract: An electronic circuit element has two capacitance values selected by means of a main control signal. The electronic circuit element comprises two variable-capacitance electronic components connected in parallel and each receiving opposite intermediate control signals, derived from the main control signal. The two variable-capacitance components are differentiated by a configuration parameter. The electronic circuit element exhibits a variation in capacitance corresponding to a difference between respective variations in capacitance of the two variable-capacitance electronic components during an inversion of the main control signal. The variation in capacitance of the electronic circuit element may be less than 5 attoFarads.
Abstract: An inductive element formed of planar windings in different conductive levels, the windings being formed in a number of levels smaller by one unit than the number of windings, two of the windings being interdigited in a same level.
Abstract: An antenna including a planar conductive track, which follows, from a first end intended to be connected to a radiofrequency transceiver circuit to a second free end, a serpentine-shaped pattern having at least three primary parallel sections of the same length, connected, except for a first one and for a last one, by their respective ends to one of the ends of a preceding section and of a next section by secondary rectilinear sections having the same length, perpendicular to the primary sections.
Abstract: A method for manufacturing an inductance in a monolithic circuit including a substrate of planar upper surface, including the steps of forming in the substrate a cavity substantially following the contour of the inductance to be formed, the cross-section of the cavity being deep with respect to its width; and filling the cavity with a conductive material.
Abstract: An integrated superheterodyne dual-conversion tuner upconverts a signal so as to place it outside a reception band, and then downconverts the signal with a non-zero intermediate frequency. A first filter of the bulk acoustic wave type is positioned between the up and down conversion and is calibrated in such a way as to accurately determine its central frequency. A second filter of a microelectromechanical type receives the downconverted signal and is calibrated in such a way as to accurately determine its central frequency.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 6, 2004
Date of Patent:
July 29, 2008
Assignee:
STMicroelectronics S.A.
Inventors:
Pierre Busson, Pierre-Oliver Jouffre, Bruno Paille
Abstract: A method for arbitrating access to a resource shared by several electronic elements. Each element is allocated a first counting value and a first penalty, the first counting value is decremented in synchronization with a clock signal, and is incremented by a value equal to the first penalty every time the element is selected for an access cycle. When several elements are simultaneously waiting to access the shared resource, an element is selected to access the resource if its first counting value is lower than or equal to a determined threshold, and is lower than the first counting values of the other elements having sent an access request.
Abstract: A method of cyphering and/or decyphering, by an integrated circuit, of a digital input code by means of several keys, comprising: dividing the code into several data blocks of same dimensions; and applying to said blocks several turns of a cyphering or decyphering comprising submitting each block to at least one same non-linear transformation and of subsequently combining each block with a different key at each turn, the operands being masked, upon execution of the method, by at least one first random number having the size of the code and all the blocks of which have the same value by combining, by an XOR-type function, the input and output blocks of the non-linear transformation with said random number.
Abstract: A method and a device for converting a virtual address of a program executed by a processor and provided by a program counter into a physical address in a program memory, the program having been stored in the memory in at least one segment of consecutive addresses. The method includes adding to each address provided by the program counter a number corresponding to the offset between the memory address and the virtual address provided by the program counter, and detecting a possible overflow from the current segment by comparing the obtained physical address with the start and end addresses of the considered segment.
Abstract: A device for controlling an image sensor including at least one photosensitive cell including a photodiode capable of discharging into a sense node via a first MOS transistor, the sense node being connected to the gate of a second MOS transistor having its source connected to a processing system. The device includes a bias circuit capable of increasing the voltage of the source during the discharge of the photodiode into the sense node.
Abstract: A method for correcting mismatches between a digital signal in phase and a digital signal in quadrature originating from a signal broadcast by terrestrial channel, comprising a phase correction method. A set of first error values is measured during a first period. A current value of a second error is determined based on a sum of the first error values. The current value is compared with a previous second error value stored in memory. The value of a current phase shift correction is chosen from two phase shift correction values, based on the result of the comparison and the value of a previous phase shift correction. The value of the chosen current phase shift correction is added to the previous phase shift to obtain a current phase shift. This current phase shift is introduced between the digital signal in phase and the digital signal in quadrature.
Abstract: An imaging optical module is designed to be placed in front of an optical image sensor of a semiconductor component. The module includes at least one element which has a refractive index that varies between its optical axis and its periphery, over at least an annular part and/or over its central part. The element may be a tablet in front of the semiconductor sensor or a lens in front of the semiconductor sensor. The direction of variation in refractive index may be oppositely oriented with respect to the table and lens.
Abstract: A circuit for controlling a switch to be controlled in unidirectional fashion while the voltage present thereacross is an A.C. Voltage, including circuitry for delaying the switch turning-on with respect to a zero crossing of the voltage thereacross, and circuitry for triggering the switch turning-off after its turning on, at the end of a predetermined time interval plus or minus an error time controlled by the duty cycle of the A.C. Voltage across the switch, in one or several previous periods. The control circuit applies to the forming of a rectifying circuit by the switch.
Abstract: A method and a system for protecting a static digital datum contained in a first element of an electronic circuit, intended to be exploited by a second element of this circuit, in which: on the side of the first element, the static datum is converted into a dynamic data flow by at least one first linear shift feedback register representing a different polynomial according to the value of the static datum; the dynamic flow is transmitted to the second element; and on the side of the second element, the received dynamic flow is decoded by at least one second shift register representing at least one of the polynomials that has been used by the first element.
Abstract: A non-directional coupler including a semiconductor junction in series with a capacitor, the semiconductor junction being formed so that the threshold frequency short of which it behaves as a rectifier is smaller than the coupler's operating frequency.
Abstract: A package for a fuel cell having an upper plate having a plurality of openings, the front surface of a cell element being intended to be received under each opening to close it, each cell element having a first pad and a second connection pad, each opening being provided with at least one crossbar connecting two sides of the opening, this crossbar having at least a conductive track portion having a first end connected to a pad of a first cell element and having a second end connected to a pad of a neighboring cell element.
Abstract: A circuit for controlling the power in a load supplied by an A.C. voltage and directly connected to a first terminal of application of the A.C. voltage, including two isolated-gate bipolar transistors, connected in anti-parallel between a second terminal of application of the A.C. voltage and the load; circuitry for detecting the zero crossing of the A.C. supply voltage in a first direction; circuitry for generating, at each period of the supply voltage, a pulse of predetermined duration for controlling a first one of said transistors, the time of occurrence of the pulse being conditioned by the detection of the zero crossing of the A.C. voltage and by a desired power reference setting a variable delay of occurrence of the pulse with respect to the detected zero crossing; and circuitry for inverting and transferring said pulse to the second transistor.
Abstract: A method and a circuit for detecting the state of supply of a load by a variable voltage, including measuring the difference between values representative of the variable supply voltage and of a voltage across the load.