Abstract: A method of filtering an image filter is disclosed. The filter is provided for a digital camera including image sensors sensitive to light, a color filter placed over sensitive elements of the sensors and patterned according to a Bayer mosaic pattern layout and an interpolation algorithm joining together the digital information provided by differently colored adjacent pixels in said Bayer pattern. The filter is adaptive and includes a noise level computation block for operating directly on a said Bayer pattern data set of for each color channel thus removing noise while simultaneously preserving picture detail.

Abstract: A method for identifying a corrupted received signal that includes symbols is described. Each symbol may have a value of a Galois field associated therewith. The receiver may be configured to store a logarithm of normalized probability mass functions and corresponding Galois field values for each of the symbols. The normalized probability mass functions may be normalized with respect to a greatest probability mass function of a given symbol. The method may include comparing, for each symbol, a logarithm of normalized probability of an n-th best probability value with a respective threshold, counting a number of the logarithms that exceed the respective threshold and generating, for each symbol, a score corresponding to the number. The method may also include calculating a moving average of the scores, and comparing the moving average with an output threshold and flagging a just received symbol as corrupted based upon the comparison.

Abstract: A semiconductor device includes an assembly of two integrated circuits. The assembly has a layer of photoresist filling the space between the two integrated circuits, and at least one electrically conducting pillar within the resist and electrically coupling the two integrated circuits.

Abstract: An embodiment of a transaction reordering arrangement is provided. The transaction reordering arrangement includes a queue into which respective responses to requests are writable and a controller configured to control a position in said queue to which said respective responses to said requests are written. The position is controlled such that the responses are read out of said queue in an order which corresponds to an order in which the requests are issued.

Abstract: A support substrate comprises first and second counter-electrodes arranged in the same plane at the level of a surface of the support substrate. An electrically insulating area separates the first and second counter-electrodes. A semi-conducting area with first and second portions is separated from the support substrate by an electrically insulating material. The electrically insulating material is different from the material forming the support substrate. The first portion of the semi-conducting area is facing the first counter-electrode. The second portion of the semi-conducting area is facing the second counter-electrode.

Abstract: A microelectromechanical detection structure for a MEMS resonant biaxial accelerometer is provided with: an inertial mass, anchored to a substrate by elastic elements to be suspended above the substrate. The elastic elements enabling inertial movements of the inertial mass along a first axis of detection and a second axis of detection that belong to a plane of main extension of said inertial mass, in response to respective linear external accelerations. At least one first resonant element and one second resonant element have a respective longitudinal extension, respectively along the first axis of detection and the second axis of detection, and are mechanically coupled to the inertial mass through a respective one of the elastic elements to undergo a respective axial stress when the inertial mass moves respectively along the first axis of detection and the second axis of detection.

Abstract: A device for monitoring the temperature surrounding a circuit, including: a charge storage element; a charge evacuation device; and a thermo-mechanical switch connecting the storage element to the evacuation element, the switch being capable of closing without the circuit being electrically powered, when the temperature exceeds a threshold.

Abstract: A MOSFET implemented self-powered current by-pass or circuit breaker device is based on the use of a high multiplication factor (HMF) inductive voltage booster, adapted to boost a voltage as low as few tens of mV up to several Volts, assisted by a start-up low multiplication factor (LMF) charge pump made with low threshold transistors for providing a supply voltage to a polarity inversion detecting comparator of the drain-to-source voltage difference of a power MOSFET connected in parallel to a DC source or string of series connected DC sources or battery, in series to other DC sources during normal operation of the parallel connected DC source or string of series connected DC sources or battery. The inductance for the high multiplication factor, inductive voltage booster for most of the considered power applications is on the order of a few pH and such a relatively send inductor may be included as a discrete component in a compact package or “system-in-package” of monolithically integrated circuits.

Abstract: A method is for formation of an electrically conducting through-via within a first semiconductor support having a front face and comprising a silicon substrate. The method may include forming of a first insulating layer on top of the front face of the first semiconductor support, fabricating a handle including, within an additional rigid semiconductor support having an intermediate semiconductor layer, and forming on either side of the intermediate semiconductor layer of a porous region and of an additional insulating layer. The method may also include direct bonding of the first insulating layer and of the additional insulating layer, and thinning of the silicon substrate of the first semiconductor support so as to form a back face opposite to the front face.

Abstract: Embodiments described in the present disclosure relate to a method for initializing registers of peripherals of a microcontroller, including acts of: accessing initialization data in a non-volatile memory connected by a main bus to a processing unit of the microcontroller and to the peripherals, activating a peripheral including registers to be initialized, and transferring the data read into the registers of the activated peripheral, the initialization data being accessed in the memory by an initialization circuit distinct from the processing unit, the initialization data accessed being sent to the peripherals by an initialization bus distinct from the main bus.

Abstract: A device for detecting the thinning down of the substrate of an integrated circuit chip, including, in the active area of the substrate, bar-shaped diffused resistors connected as a Wheatstone bridge, wherein: first opposite resistors of the bridge are oriented along a first direction; the second opposite resistors of the bridge are oriented along a second direction; and the first and second directions are such that a thinning down of the substrate causes a variation of the imbalance value of the bridge.

Abstract: A terahertz imager includes an array of pixel circuits. Each pixel circuit has an antenna and a detector. The detector is coupled to differential output terminals of the antenna. A frequency oscillator is configured to generate a frequency signal on an output line. The output line is coupled to an input terminal of the antenna of at least one of the pixel circuits.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing a suspended membrane in a single-crystal semiconductor substrate, including the steps of: forming in the substrate an insulating ring delimiting an active area, removing material from the active area, successively forming in the active area a first and a second layers, the second layer being a single-crystal semiconductor layer, etching a portion of the internal periphery of said ring down to a depth greater than the thickness of the second layer, removing the first layer so that the second layer formed a suspended membrane anchored in the insulating ring.

Abstract: A bandgap reference voltage generator includes a bipolar assembly having a first resistor, a first branch and a second branch that is in parallel with the first branch. The first branch includes a first bipolar transistor with a base coupled to a fixed voltage. The second branch includes a second bipolar transistor with a base coupled to the fixed voltage and a second resistor coupled in series with the second bipolar transistor. A differential module is coupled to the first and second bipolar transistors and configured to balance the currents in the first and the second branches. The bandgap reference voltage is output at a node to which the first resistor is connected.

Abstract: A microfluidic device may include a substrate having a cavity therein, and a bendable membrane within the cavity and having a plurality of spaced apart valve passageways therein. The bendable membrane may be bendable between a first position with the valve passageways being opened, and a second position with the valve passageways being closed. The microfluidic device may further include an actuator configured to bend the bendable membrane between the first and second positions.

Abstract: An embodiment includes an impedance calibration circuit having a calibrator configured to compare voltage levels at an external node and an internal node of the impedance calibration circuit and to generate an output based on the comparison. The calibrator further includes respective filters coupled between the external node and a first input of the comparator, and between the internal node and a second input of the comparator. The filters are configured for symmetric noise injection into the comparator from a chip ground line to which a programmable resistor at the internal node is coupled.

Abstract: A memory cell including a via made of a phase-change material arranged between a lower electrode and an upper electrode, wherein the via includes a central region laterally surrounded with a peripheral region, the crystallization and melting temperatures of the central region being respectively lower than those of the peripheral region.

Abstract: An electronic device may include a temperature sensing semiconductor substrate, that may include a thermal sensor at an upper surface thereof, and a cooling semiconductor substrate having an upper surface coupled to a lower surface of the temperature sensing semiconductor substrate. The cooling semiconductor substrate may include a Peltier cooler. At least one of the temperature sensing semiconductor substrate and the cooling semiconductor substrate may have a cavity therein beneath the thermopile and aligned therewith.

Abstract: A frequency oscillator includes a ring oscillator having N inverters coupled in series, where N is an odd integer equal to three or more. A first filter is coupled between an output node of a first of the inverters and an output line of the frequency oscillator. A second filter is coupled between an output node of a second of the inverters and the output line of the frequency oscillator.

Abstract: A memory cell including a via made of a phase-change material arranged between a lower electrode and an upper electrode, wherein the via includes a first region adjacent to a second region itself adjacent to at least one third region, the first, second, and third regions each extending from the upper electrode to the lower electrode, the crystallization temperature of the second region ranging between that of the first region and that of the third region, and the melting temperatures of the first, second, and third regions being substantially identical.