Abstract: A seal includes a housing with an exterior surface. The housing forms a cavity extending from the exterior surface into the housing and defines at least one slanted interior surface. The at least one slanted interior surface extends from the exterior surface of the housing and is in a substantially non-perpendicular and angled relation to the exterior surface of the housing. The seal also includes at least one electrical lead that extends through the housing and has a portion exposed across the cavity therein. The at least one electrical lead extends from the housing and is configured to be in electrical contact with at least one electrical component encased within the electronic control housing. The seal also includes an adhesive material that substantially fills the cavity and surrounds the exposed portion of the at least one electrical lead within the cavity.

Abstract: Methods and systems for measuring available direct memory access (DMA) throughput are disclosed, including providing a plurality of DMA channels, the DMA channels comprising a measuring DMA channel and other DMA channels, the measuring DMA channel having a lowest data rate priority, and determining an available DMA throughput by measuring a current data rate at which the measuring DMA channel is serviced in response to initiating a data transfer on the measuring DMA channel.

Abstract: A piezoresistive pressure sensor that uses a protective gel to protect the piezoresistive device is susceptible to lead wire failure by vibration-induced waves in the protective gel. Such waves can be reduced and the device made more robust by the use of three-dimensional structures in the gel, which are configured to reduce and/or re-direct vibration-induced pressure waves in the gel. The structures are referred to as “breakwaters” in that they protect lead wires and lead wire connections from wave fronts and the damage that wave-induced pressure on the lead wires causes.

Abstract: Methods and systems for providing electrical power, including determining a plurality of fine power duty cycles according to a respective plurality of power values, and generating the respective plurality of power values using a time-shared pulse-width modulator (PWM), the time-shared PWM being configured to be modulated at the respective plurality of fine duty power cycles during a respective plurality of time slots.

Abstract: Methods and systems for locating a vehicle are disclosed, including detecting one or more environmental conditions, the one or more environmental conditions being indicative of an occurrence of an environmental event, determining a probability of the occurrence of the environmental event in response to detecting the one or more environmental conditions, and effecting a preventive action in response to the probability being above a threshold probability, the preventive action being configured to protect the vehicle from the environmental event.

Abstract: Methods and systems for power conversion are disclosed, including receiving at least one interrupt indicative of a transient power condition of the power converter and switching the processor to operate in a second mode from a first mode responsive to the interrupt. The switching enables the processor to allocate greater resources to process a power output parameter of the power converter operating in the transient power condition compared to resources allocated by the processor operating in the first mode to process the power output parameter.

Abstract: An electrically noisy D.C. power source having high slew rate A.C. transient voltage, is cut off from a capacitive load by a switchable, constant slew rate voltage source, upon the detection of an A.C. transient voltage having a slew rate that would otherwise cause a current overload through the capacitive load or the voltage source, or the D.C. power source.

Abstract: Methods and systems for analyzing communication options, including determining one or more states of one or more communication-related conditions, and analyzing the one or more states and one or more communication options to determine an optimum communication option.

Abstract: Pressure non-linearity in a low pressure sensor device formed from a silicon diaphragm with an embedded piezoresistive transducer is reduced by using a shallow boss or thin stiffener on an ultra-thin diaphragm while the pressure sensitivity of the device is increased with corner trenches.

Abstract: MEMS pressure sensing elements, the fabrication methods of the sensing elements, and the packaging methods using the new sensing elements are introduced to provide a way for a harsh media absolute pressure sensing and eliminating the negative effects caused by the gel used in the prior art. The invention uses vertical conductive vias to electrically connect the enclosed circuit to the outside, and uses a fusion bond method to attach a cap with the embedded conductive vias over a device die having a circuit for example a piezoresistive Wheatstone bridge to sense pressure. New packaging methods comprise a) a two-pocket housing structure and using a surface mounting method to attach a new sensing element into one pocket by a ball grid array (BGA), and b) a single pocket structure and using conventional die attach and wire bonding. Both methods can be used for harsh media pressure sensing but without the negative effects caused by the gel in prior art.

Abstract: Ultra-thin semiconductor devices, including piezoresistive sensing elements can be formed in a wafer stack that facilitates handling many thin device dice at a wafer level. Three embodiments are provided to form the thin dice in a wafer stack using three different fabrication techniques that include anodic bonding, adhesive bonding and fusion bonding. A trench is etched around each thin die to separate the thin die from others in the wafer stack. A tether layer, also known as a tether, is used to hold thin dice or dice in a wafer stack. Such as wafer stack holds many thin dice together at a wafer level for handling and enables easier die picking in packaging processes.

Abstract: Methods and systems for optimizing and audio communication system, including detecting a surrounding noise profile, determining one or more states of one or more noise-related conditions corresponding to the surrounding noise profile, and associating the one or more states of the one or more noise-related conditions to the surrounding noise profile.

Abstract: Methods and systems for detecting changes in currents are disclosed, including: dividing a main current into two or more subcurrents, combining a first magnetic flux of a first subcurrent of the two or more of the subcurrents with another magnetic flux of another current to generate a combined magnetic flux, and sensing the combined magnetic flux to determine relative changes between the first subcurrent and the other current.

Abstract: Methods and systems for measuring pressure through a jointless pressure sensor port are disclosed, including permitting a substance to pass into a jointless pressure sensor port comprising an aperture, a channel, and a diaphragm having a larger area than the area of the aperture, allowing the substance to come into contact with the diaphragm resulting in a mechanical stress on the diaphragm, and measuring the mechanical stress to generate a signal indicative of the substance pressure.

Abstract: A circuit-board mountable antenna (50, 80, 90) has a substrate (12,14) compliant with the IPC/JEDEC J-STD_0202C and IEC-norm standard 60068, which specifies the spacing and pin arrangements for a printed circuit board (PCB) mountable connector commonly known in the automotive electronic art as a “FAKRA” or “Fakra.” A radio frequency (RF) energy transducer or antenna (54) is applied to or formed over the substrate (12, 14) which is provided with at least one mounting pin (16) and a signal lead (18), the spacing and locations of which are compliant with the Fakra ISO-compliant hole pattern. The antennae (50, 80, 90) thus provide a circuit board (70) mountable antenna, compliant with the Fakra standard. The Fakra-compliant antenna or a Fakra-compliant connector can be attached to the circuit board (70) for a communications device (100) at the time of assembly to enable the communications device to use either a concealed or concealable antenna or an external antenna.

Abstract: A system and method in a client device (22) for controlling the power within the client device (22). The client device (22) has a network access device (30, 130), a programmable timer (48), and a controller (42). The network access device (30, 130) has at least a powered state and a power-off state. The programmable timer (48) operates the network access device (30, 130) in the powered state. The controller (42) is coupled to the programmable timer (48) and is capable of providing a time period for operating the network access device (30, 130) in the powered state. The controller (42) determines the time period based on a discontinuous reception (DRX) parameter obtained from the network access device (30, 130). The network access device (130) may include a transceiver. The network access device (30) may also include a transceiver and a controller. There are also methods of operating the client device (22) to control the power within the device.

Abstract: A determination is made as to whether a first channel is communicatively coupled to a communication network. The first communication channel is configured to preferentially transmit emergency messages to the communication network. When the first communication channel is not communicatively coupled to the communication network, a second communication channel and at least one configuration parameter to configure the second communication channel are determined. The second communication channel is configured with the determined at least one parameter. An emergency message is transmitted over the configured second communication channel.

Abstract: Methods and systems for selectively switching between microphones in a plurality of microphones are disclosed, including providing a first state that corresponds to one or more microphones selected from the plurality of microphones. A subset of microphones may be selected from the plurality of microphones in response to determining an average power of an input signal for each of the plurality of microphones. A second state may be identified that includes at least one of the subset of microphones in response to evaluating the average powers of the input signals for the subset of microphones against a predetermined condition. A transition from the first state to the second state may be delayed in response to determining a transition delay time corresponding to the first state.

Abstract: Methods and systems for locating a vehicle are disclosed, including determining a vehicle location information of a vehicle, and sending the vehicle location information to a mobile device, thereby enabling the mobile device to determine a relative location of the vehicle with respect to the mobile device, in response to the mobile device determining a mobile device location information of the mobile device.

Abstract: A device (100) and method (200, 300) authenticate and secure control event data for a vehicle, wherein the device includes: A) a microcontroller (104), coupled to receive control event information, for attaching a first time stamp and vehicle identification number VIN to the control event information to provide first information and sending the first information to memory (106) in time overlap fashion; B) the memory (106), coupled to the microcontroller (104) and a microprocessor (108), for storing first information and second information in time overlap fashion; and C) the microprocessor (108), coupled to the memory (106) and a plurality of transducers (110), for determining whether received impact data varies from previous impact data, and where received impact data varies, adding a second time stamp and VIN to the received impact data to form second information.