Abstract: An encapsulated micro-electro-mechanical device, wherein a MEMS chip is encapsulated by a package formed by a first, a second, and a third substrates that are bonded together. The first substrate has a main surface bearing the MEMS chip, the second substrate is bonded to the first substrate and defines a chamber surrounding the MEMS chip, and the third substrate is bonded to the second substrate and upwardly closes the chamber. A grid or mesh structure of electrically conductive material is formed in or on the third substrate and overlies the MEMS chip; the second substrate has a conductive connection structure coating the walls of the chamber, and the first substrate incorporates an electrically conductive region, which forms, together with the conductive layer and the grid or mesh structure, a Faraday cage.

Abstract: A memory circuit includes a first memory cell node capacitor, a first memory cell node transistor, a second memory cell node having a second memory cell node capacitor and a second memory cell node transistor, and a pre-charging circuit for pre-charging the first and second memory cell nodes to first and second voltage levels, respectively. The circuit includes a reference memory cell having first and second reference cell transistors with an equalizing transistor between, and a sense amplifier that detects a potential difference between reference bit lines from the reference memory cell and the first or second memory cell node, respectively. The reference cell transistors and equalizing transistor perform a first voltage equalization of the memory cell nodes at a predetermined voltage and a second voltage equalization of the memory cell nodes based on first or second reference signals respectively input to the first or second reference cell transistor.

Abstract: An integrated circuit, comprises a wakeup terminal; a supply voltage terminal configured to receive a supply voltage; and a power control circuit. The power control circuit comprises an enable circuit coupled to the wakeup terminal and configured to generate a voltage monitoring enable signal as a response to a wakeup signal received at the wakeup terminal, and a voltage monitoring circuit for generating a supply voltage level indication signal. The voltage monitoring circuit is coupled to the supply voltage terminal and comprises an operation switch controlled by the voltage monitoring enable signal. The voltage monitoring circuit is configured to determine if the supply voltage is above a threshold voltage and set the supply voltage level indication signal accordingly. The integrated circuit further comprises processing circuitry, with the supply voltage level indication signal controlling the switching between a normal operation state and a standby state of the processing circuitry.

Abstract: A power supply of luminous sources is disclosed comprising a first circuit configured to generate a direct voltage signal from an alternating input voltage and a second circuit having in input the direct voltage signal and configured to generate an alternating voltage signal of rectangular wave shape and null average value. The power supply comprises: a third circuit configured to generate a current signal of triangular wave shape from the alternating voltage signal, a fourth circuit configured to extract from the current signal a voltage signal of triangular wave shape and non-null average value, a fifth circuit configured to control the frequency of the alternating voltage signal based on the average value of the voltage signal extracted by the fourth circuit, a sixth circuit configured to rectify said current signal and supply the luminous sources.

Abstract: A circuit is provided for clock recovery. The circuit includes a reference extraction unit for extracting from a datastream time references defining a reference time base, and a digital Phase Locked Loop including a first programmable counter in the guise of a digitally controlled oscillator for overseeing an output time base, a second programmable counter in the guise of a loop divider for overseeing a loop time base, and a dedicated processor capable of executing a program including a first software module in the guise of a phase comparator for comparing values of the loop and reference time bases and generating a loop error, and a second software module in the guise of a loop filter for producing an adaptation value of an increment value of the first programmable counter from the loop error. Also provided are a user terminal and a method for clock recovery.

Abstract: The present invention provides a built-in self-repairable memory. The invention repairs a faulty IC through hard fuses, as well as through available redundancy in memories on chip. As the faults are not present in all the memories, the invention uses a lesser number of fuses to actually make a repair and thus results in a yield enhancement. The fuse data is stored in a compressed form and then decompressed as a restore happens at the power on. The fuse data interface with the memory to be repaired is serial. The serial links decreases the routing congestion and hence gain in area as well as gain in yield (due to lesser defects and reduced area).

Abstract: A method and corresponding circuit that adjusts the gain of an audio output stage having a class D amplifier, this method including the steps of setting the gain to a nominal value, analyzing an output signal during successive clock periods, counting the number of clock periods during which the signal is in a state corresponding to a saturation, decreasing the gain if the number reaches, before the end of a first time interval, a value corresponding to a first percentage, maintaining the gain constant if, at the end of a second time interval, different from the first interval, the number corresponds to a second percentage being comprised between the first percentage and a third percentage, and increasing the gain if, at the end of the second time interval, the number corresponds to a fourth percentage, lower than the third percentage.

Abstract: A light-sensitive pixel array has an active area and an additional area of optically shielded pixels. A “noise figure” is derived as a measure of the prevalence of noise in the image signal without being affected by the presence of moving detail in the image. The noise figure is derived by measuring the difference in output between the pixels of at least one pair of pixels in the optically shielded area in one frame, repeating this measurement in a subsequent frame, and then subtracting one pixel pair difference from the other to give a difference of differences. In a preferred form, four pairs of pixels are used. The noise figure may be used to control digital signal processing of the image signal, such as be smoothing.

Abstract: An electronic system, an integrated circuit and a method for display are disclosed. The electronic system contains a first device, a memory and a video/audio compression/decompression device such as a decoder/encoder. The electronic system is configured to allow the first device and the video/audio compression/decompression device to share the memory. The electronic system may be included in a computer in which case the memory is a main memory. Memory access is accomplished by one or more memory interfaces, direct coupling of the memory to a bus, or direct coupling of the first device and decoder/encoder to a bus. An arbiter selectively provides access for the first device and/or the decoder/encoder to the memory based on priority. The arbiter may be monolithically integrated into a memory interface. The decoder may be a video decoder configured to comply with the MPEG-2 standard. The memory may store predicted images obtained from a preceding image.

Abstract: A metal barrier is realized on top of a metal portion of a semiconductor product, by forming a metal layer on the surface of the metal portion, with this metal layer comprising a cobalt-based metal material. Then, after an optional deoxidation step, a silicidation step and a nitridation step of the cobalt-based metal material of the metal layer are performed. The antidiffusion properties of copper atoms (for example) and the antioxidation properties of the metal barrier are improved.

Abstract: An audio processor, apparatus, and method use physical speakers to emulate one or more additional speakers. The physical speakers produce sounds that, from a listener's perspective, appear to come from at least one direction where a physical speaker is not present. Any number of additional speakers can be virtualized, such as three or five speakers that allow two speakers to emulate a 5.1 audio system.

Abstract: A device for programming PCM cells includes a pulse-generator circuit for supplying programming current pulses. The pulse-generator circuit includes: at least one first capacitive element; a charging circuit, connectable to the first capacitive element in a first operating condition, for bringing a reference voltage on the first capacitive element to a reset value; a discharge-current generator, selectively connectable to the first capacitive element in a second operating condition, for discharging the first capacitive element through a controlled discharge current; a logic unit, configured to control connection and disconnection of the first capacitive element), of the charging circuit, and of the discharge-current generator; and a voltage-to-current converter, for converting the reference voltage into current.

Abstract: A low dropout voltage regulator (LDO) includes a bias voltage generator, a differential error amplifier, an output driver, a controlled active load, a Double Ended Cascode Miller compensation block. The bias voltage generator produces a plurality of bias voltages. The differential error amplifier produces a differential output voltage based on the difference between a reference voltage and a function of the output voltage. The input terminal of the output driver is coupled to one output of the differential error amplifier. The substrate terminal of the output driver is capacitively coupled to the output node and resistively coupled to the input supply node. The controlled active load is coupled to the output of the output driver, and its control terminal is coupled to a function of the second output of the differential error amplifier.

Abstract: A method for forming, on a surface of a thinned-down semiconductor substrate, a contact connected to a metal track of an interconnect stack formed on the opposite surface of the thinned-down substrate, including the steps of: forming, on the side of a first surface of a substrate, an insulating region penetrating into the substrate and coated with a conductive region and with an insulating layer crossed by conductive vias, the vias connecting a metal track of the interconnect stack to the conductive region; gluing the external surface of the interconnect stack on a support and thinning down the substrate; etching the external surface of the thinned-down substrate and stopping on the insulating region; etching the insulating region and stopping on the conductive region; and filling the etched opening with a metal.

Abstract: A relaxation oscillator includes a capacitor connected to a comparator input, current sources switched to supply power to the capacitor based on an output of the comparator, and a duplicate integrator shifting a voltage on the capacitor to offset a propagation delay through the comparator. The duplicate integrator includes current sources and a capacitor matching and switched in tandem with those within the relaxation oscillator, plus an additional current source, and is selectively switched into connection with the comparator input. By canceling the comparator propagation delay, the oscillator output frequency can be stably controlled through selection of resistive and capacitive values, using cheaper technology and tolerating large temperature, voltage and process variations.

Abstract: A micro-electro-mechanical gyroscope includes a first mass, which is able to oscillate along a first axis with respect to a fixed body, an inertial sensor having a second mass constrained to the first mass so as to oscillate along a second axis in response to a rotation of the gyroscope, a driving device coupled to the first mass that forms a control loop for maintaining the first mass in oscillation at a resonance frequency, and a reading device that detects displacements of the second mass along the second axis, which includes a charge amplifier for converting charge packets supplied by the inertial sensor into a charge-integration signal, and a low-pass filter. A calibration stage enables modification of a voltage between the second mass and the fixed body so as to minimize a component at a frequency that is twice the resonance frequency in the charge-integration signal.

Abstract: A transconductor circuit, particularly according to the multi-tanh principle, having a first input node and a second input node, a first differential amplifier coupled to the first and second input nodes, and having a first offset voltage, and a second differential amplifier coupled to the first and second input nodes, and having a second offset voltage different from the first offset voltage. A first resistance circuit is coupled between the first differential amplifier and at least one current source, and a second resistance circuit is coupled between the second differential amplifier and the at least one current source. Varying of the current sources enables control of the transconductance without degrading linearity.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides a system for providing a security and method of providing an enhanced security booting environment. The system and method includes a basic input/output system (BIOS) stored in memory. The system and method also includes a counter embedded in the memory configured to monitor the number of times each block of the memory has been written. This information could be used with existing error detection mechanisms to improve the ability to detect unintended write operations.

Abstract: An interleaver is constructed based on the joint constraints imposed in the channel and the code domains. A sequentially optimal algorithm is used for mapping bits in the inter-symbol interference (ISI) domain to the code domain by taking into account the ISI memory depth and the connectivity of the nodes within the parity check matrix. Primary design constraints are considered such as the parallelism factor so that the proposed system is hardware compliant in meeting high throughput requirements.