Patents Assigned to Synaptics Incorporated
  • Patent number: 11061521
    Abstract: A system and method for capacitive sensing comprise acquiring first capacitive sensor data and second capacitive sensor data from a plurality of sensor electrodes, and determining positional information from one or more input objects based on the first capacitive sensor data and the second capacitive sensor data. The plurality of sensor electrodes are driven with transcapacitive sensing signals for capacitive sensing during one or more transcapacitive sensing blocks to acquire the first sensor data. Each of the transcapacitive sensing signals is based on a respective one of a plurality of codes. Further, the plurality of sensor electrodes are operated for absolute capacitive sensing during one or more absolute capacitive sensing blocks to acquire the second capacitive sensor data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2021
    Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
    Inventors: Nickolas V. Fotopoulos, Katayoun Goudarzi, Tracy Scott Dattalo, Joseph Kurth Reynolds, Jonathan Losh, Renuka Vidyut Shenoy, Derek Solven
  • Patent number: 11056351
    Abstract: A system and method for thinning an integrated circuit (IC) wafer. The system includes a support structure to hold the IC wafer and a mechanism to operate on the IC wafer. The support structure includes one or more inductive coils configured to transmit a power signal to the IC wafer and receive a feedback signal from the IC wafer. The system further includes a process controller to control the operation based at least in part on the feedback signal received from the IC wafer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: SYNAPTICS INCORPORATED
    Inventor: Stephen L. Morein
  • Patent number: 11054942
    Abstract: A processing system is disclosed. The processing system includes an amplifier configured to generate a feedback signal by amplifying each of multiple reduced noise signals based on a gain value and a cardinality of the reduced noise signals. The processing system also includes multiple charge integrators configured to obtain resulting signals from capacitive sensor electrodes coupled to a noise source and generate the reduced noise signals by mitigating noise in the resulting signals using the feedback signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
    Inventor: Chunbo Liu
  • Patent number: 11054908
    Abstract: A method may include obtaining, using a first set of resulting signals from various proximity sensor electrodes, positional information regarding a location of an input object in a sensing region. The method may include obtaining, using a second set of resulting signals from various force sensor electrodes, force information regarding an input force that is applied to an input surface. The method may include loading, using a loading actuator and in response to the positional information or the force information, energy in a spring element coupled to a buckling element. The spring element may apply a compression force to the buckling element based on the energy in the spring element. The method may include generating, using a buckling actuator and in response to the positional information or the force information, a haptic event by applying a force to the buckling element to trigger the haptic event.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
    Inventors: Joseph Kurth Reynolds, Doug Krumpelman
  • Patent number: 11048367
    Abstract: A capacitive sensor device comprises a first sensor electrode, a second sensor electrode, and a processing system coupled to the first sensor electrode and the second sensor electrode. The processing system is configured to acquire a first capacitive measurement by emitting and receiving a first electrical signal with the first sensor electrode. The processing system is configured to acquire a second capacitive measurement by emitting and receiving a second electrical signal, wherein one of the first and second sensor electrodes performs the emitting and the other of the first and second sensor electrodes performs the receiving, and wherein the first and second capacitive measurements are non-degenerate. The processing system is configured to determine positional information using the first and second capacitive measurements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
    Inventors: Joseph Kurth Reynolds, Phillip Acker, Kirk Hargreaves, Shahrooz Shahparnia
  • Patent number: 11050435
    Abstract: Systems and methods for low power sample rate conversion are based on a noise shaping technique. A sample rate conversion circuit includes a clock synchronization circuit configured to receive an input sample sequence at a first sample rate and generate a valid sample sequence that is sampled at a second sample rate different from the first sample rate. The valid sample sequence may include valid samples from a registered sequence sampled at an oversampled rate greater than the first sample rate with invalid samples in the registered sequence being excluded from the valid sample sequence. The sample rate conversion circuit also includes a noise shaping circuit coupled to the clock synchronization circuit and configured to encode the valid sample sequence into a noise-shaped output sequence at the second sample rate by suppressing quantization noise from the valid sample sequence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: SYNAPTICS INCORPORATED
    Inventor: Jens Kristian Poulsen
  • Patent number: 11041890
    Abstract: Systems and methods according to one or more embodiments are provided for sensing a current at an output of a switching amplifier. In one example, a system includes a first transistor switch coupled to a load configured to conduct a current in the load responsive to a first pulse width modulated control signal coupled to a gate terminal of the first transistor switch. The system further includes a second transistor switch configured to conduct the current in the load responsive to a second pulse width modulated control signal coupled to a gate terminal of the second transistor switch. A shielding switch is coupled between the load and a current sensing circuit, wherein the shielding switch is configured to provide a small signal voltage to the current sensing circuit in response to the second pulse width modulated control signal, the current sensing circuit is configured to sense the current traveling through the load responsive to the small signal voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2021
    Assignee: SYNAPTICS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Dan Shen, Lorenzo Crespi
  • Patent number: 11037495
    Abstract: A display driver comprises drive circuitry and emission control circuitry. The display driver is configured to drive a display panel. The display panel may be a self-luminous display panel. The emission control circuitry is configured to generate a control signal to control the display panel during a first frame period to successively move a plurality of non-light-emitting areas successively inserted at an end of a display area of the display panel in a predetermined direction, the plurality of non-light-emitting areas having gradually changing widths in the predetermined direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
    Inventors: Masao Orio, Hirobumi Furihata, Takashi Nose, Ken Sato, Nobuhiro Nagato
  • Patent number: 11036388
    Abstract: A method for performing navigation (NAV) operations using a sensor device comprising a plurality of transmitter electrodes includes: receiving, at an input sensing region of the sensor device, an input object; scanning, by the sensor device, the input object, wherein the scanning comprises driving a first subset of transmitter electrodes for low-resolution scanning and driving a second subset of transmitter electrodes for high-resolution scanning; and determining, by the sensor device, an input object motion based at least in part on the scanning.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
    Inventors: Guozhong Shen, Ozan Ersan Erdogan, Adam L. Schwartz
  • Patent number: 11038607
    Abstract: A method and system for bi-directional communications are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a method comprises configuring the first device to enter an active mode according to a non-overlapping (NOL) schedule, the second device being in a silent mode. A transmitter of the first device transmits a first local data signal for a duration not exceeding a maximum tolerable silent duration of the second device. The first device is configured to enter the silent mode after transmitting the first local data signal, according to the NOL schedule.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: SYNAPTICS INCORPORATED
    Inventor: Kamal Dalmia
  • Patent number: 11030989
    Abstract: An active noise cancellation system includes a sensor operable to sense environmental noise and generate a corresponding reference signal, a fixed noise cancellation filter including a predetermined model of the active noise cancellation system operable to generate an anti-noise signal, and a tunable noise cancellation filter operable to modify the anti-noise signal in accordance with stored coefficients, wherein the tunable noise cancellation filter is further operable to modify the stored coefficients in real-time based on user feedback and generate a tuned anti-noise signal that models tunable deviations from the predetermined noise model. A graphical user interface is operable to receive user adjustments of tunable parameters in real-time, the tunable parameters corresponding to at least one of the stored coefficients.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: SYNAPTICS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Trausti Thormundsson, Govind Kannan, Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Ragnar Hlynur Jonsson
  • Patent number: 11030960
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for content adaptive backlight control (CABC) is disclosed. A display device comprises a display surface including a plurality of pixel elements and a backlight configured to illuminate the display surface. A display driver of the display device is configured to receive a frame of display data, including pixel data for displaying an image on the display surface and backlight configuration data for adjusting the backlight when displaying the image. The display driver is further configured to update the plurality of pixel elements using the pixel data, and update an intensity of the backlight using the backlight configuration data. More specifically, the updates to the backlight and the display surface are performed concurrently for the received frame of display data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: SYNAPTICS INCORPORATED
    Inventor: Stephen L. Morein
  • Patent number: 11029780
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for dynamically rescanning an array of sensor electrodes of an input device. The input device performs a first scan of the array over a plurality of iterations to acquire a frame of sensor data, where a different subframe of the sensor data is acquired from each iteration of the first scan. During each iteration of the first scan, the input device compares the subframe of sensor data acquired from the iteration with a respective subframe of sensor data acquired prior to the iteration. In some implementations, the input device may selectively repeat one or more iterations of the first scan based on the comparison.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: SYNAPTICS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Katayoun Goudarzi, Tracy Scott Dattalo
  • Patent number: 11030977
    Abstract: A processing system comprises a first IC chip and a second IC chip. The first IC chip comprises first image processing circuitry, first display panel driver circuitry, and first communication circuitry. The first image processing circuitry is configured to generate a first overlay image by overlaying a first partial input image with a first image element based on first partial input image data representing the first partial input image and first image element data representing the first image element. The first display panel driver circuitry is configured to drive a display panel based on the first overlay image. The first communication circuitry is configured to output second image element data representing a second image element to the second IC chip.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
    Inventors: Akihito Kumamoto, Keiichi Hirano
  • Patent number: 11029349
    Abstract: An input device is disclosed that provides reduced electromagnetic emissions while detecting the presence of an input object. In one embodiment, a first set of sensor electrodes is driven with a first modulated signal while a second set of sensor electrodes is driven with a second set of modulated signals that is based on an inverted first modulated signal. The first set of sensor electrodes may determine a capacitance value while the second set of sensor electrodes may reduce electromagnetic emissions associated with the first set of sensor electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: SYNAPTICS INCORPORATED
    Inventor: Robert J. Bolender
  • Publication number: 20210157428
    Abstract: A method includes driving, by the master controller, transmitter electrodes with a first transmitter signal having a first sensing frequency while transmitting a first trigger signal to slave controllers, obtaining a location of an input object determined from first capacitive measurements determined by the slave controllers using the first trigger signal, and performing a resonant frequency scan. The performing the resonant frequency scan is by performing for each possible resonant frequency of resonant frequencies: driving, by the master controller, only a subset of the transmitter electrodes with a second transmitter signal having the possible resonant frequency while transmitting a second trigger signal to the slave controllers, wherein the subset corresponds to the location of the input object. The slave controllers demodulate a resulting signal according to the second trigger signal to obtain a second capacitive measurements for the possible resonant frequency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2020
    Publication date: May 27, 2021
    Applicant: Synaptics Incorporated
    Inventors: Joel C. Jordan, Elkin E. Garcia Diaz
  • Patent number: 11017204
    Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods for performing spoof detection. The method includes: receiving, by a processor from a biometric sensor, an input image of a biometric; analyzing the input image to identify pixels associated with a first feature in the input image; performing a local binary pattern (LBP) analysis on the pixels associated with the first feature, which comprises computing, for a given pixel associated with the first feature, an LBP value corresponding to texture of one or more neighboring pixels around the given pixel, wherein the neighboring pixels around the given pixel comprise eight pixels around the given pixel, including pixels on a top, a bottom, a left, a right, and at four corners of a location of the given pixel; and, determining whether the input image is a replica of the biometric based on results of performing the LBP analysis on the pixels associated with the first feature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
    Inventor: Anthony P. Russo
  • Patent number: 11017818
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for event-based media playback. A media device infers one or more actionable events in a media content item using one or more neural network models and determines a respective start location for each of the actionable events in the media content item. The media device receives user input indicating a selection of one of the actionable events and selectively initiates playback of the media content item at the start location associated with the selected actionable event.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: SYNAPTICS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Karthikeyan Shanmuga Vadivel, Tae won Kang, Umha Mahesh Srinivasan
  • Patent number: 11009988
    Abstract: A processing system including processing circuitry and sensor circuitry configured to obtain first resistance measurements of a plurality of sensor electrodes that compose a surface of an input device. The processing circuitry measures, in a first time interval, first values of electrical resistances of the electrodes. The processing circuitry calculates, from the first values, a first rate of change in the resistances, and measures, in a subsequent second time interval, second values of the electrical resistances. The processing circuitry calculates, from the second values, a second rate of change in the electrical resistances, as well as calculates, over the second time interval and based on the first rate of change, projected values of electrical resistances. The processing circuitry filters the projected values from the second values of the electrical resistances. The processing circuitry calculates, and reports, final values for the force over the second time interval using the filtered measurement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
    Inventor: Tom Vandermeijden
  • Patent number: 11010589
    Abstract: An input device includes a biometric sensor and a processing system. The biometric sensor is configured to capture images of a sensing region of the input device. The processing system is configured to acquire a first image of the sensing region in response to a first authentication trigger, and to acquire a second image of the sensing region in response to a second authentication trigger. The processing system is further configured to determine an amount of similarity between the first image and the second image, and to validate the second image for user authentication when the amount of similarity between the first image and the second image is below a threshold level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: SYNAPTICS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Anthony P. Russo, Erik Jonathon Thompson