Abstract: The distortion correction circuit includes: a main amplifier 30 having a first resistor 36 coupled from an output of the main amplifier 30 to a first input of the main amplifier 30, and a second resistor 34 coupled between the first input of the main amplifier 30 and a first input signal node; a correction loop amplifier 32 having an output coupled to a second input of the main amplifier 30, an output of the main amplifier 30 coupled to a first input of the correction loop amplifier 32, a second input of the correction loop amplifier 32 coupled to a second input signal node.

Abstract: A voltage regulator (1) and includes a first switch (S1) coupled between an input conductor (2) and a first terminal (4) of an inductor (5), a second switch (S2) coupled between the first terminal of the inductor and a common conductor (3), a third switch coupled between an output conductor (7) and a second terminal (6) of the inductor, and a fourth switch (S4) coupled between the second terminal of the inductor and the common conductor (3). The voltage regulator is operated in a mixed buck-boost mode by producing a first signal (V32) representative of the difference between an output voltage (VOUT) produced on the output conductor (7) by the voltage regulator and a reference voltage. A second signal (IMEAS) is produced to represent the current through the inductor (5). A third signal (V68) is produced to represent a combination of the first signal and the second signal. A pulse width modulated error signal (PWM) is produced by comparing the third signal (V68) to a reference voltage.

Abstract: An oxidation process for reducing the data retention loss (DRL) in a FAMOS device comprising the steps of (1) low temperature deposition of a silicon-enriched silicon oxide (130) over a FAMOS transistor gate stack (116) and (2) annealing said silicon-enriched oxide (130) at a high temperature in oxygen atmosphere to convert said silicon-enriched oxide (130) to a thermal oxide. The silicon enriched oxide (130) acts as both an oxygen getter and diffusion barrier during the annealing step.

Abstract: A system (10) for propagating a digital signal through a slew-rate limited node (18) includes a signal generator (12) which generates slowly-slewing signal (14). A signal conditioner (16) couples to signal generator (12) at node (18) to receive slowly-slewing signal (14), and produces rapidly-slewing signal (20). Signal conditioner (16) converts signal (14) into signal (20) to reduce the propagation delay from signal generator (12) to load (24) by comparing signal (14) with a low voltage threshold, VL, and a high voltage threshold, VH. Signal conditioner (16) employs memory device (92) to determine whether signal (14) is rising or falling upon crossing either threshold VL or VH.

Abstract: The present invention implements a maximum likelihood detector for optical disk drive without using a Viterbi detector. The detection algorithm that includes y0+y1 detection is very simple by requiring only one adder and one comparator, and not survival path memories.

Abstract: The preferred embodiments generalize the Band Edge Component Maximization (BECM) timing recovery method and provide blind timing recovery in Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) using all the available information rather than sampling the BECM output at the symbol rate.

Abstract: An active damping circuit damps the ringing effect caused by a write circuit for a disk drive. The circuit includes upper switches and lower switched current sources. A capacitive feedback is connected between the output and the lower switched current sources.

Abstract: A method for fabricating a bipolar transistor comprising the steps of implanting portions 320 of a semiconductor material structure with ions to render the portions semi-insulating; forming an emitter contact region 332 at an exposed surface of a base layer 308 in a non-implanted portion of the material structure; forming an epitaxial layer of semiconductor material 322 over the exposed surface in an implanted portion of the material structure; and forming a base contact 330 over said epitaxial layer. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the method includes the further step of forming a second epitaxial layer of semiconductor material 324 over the first epitaxial layer 322 and then forming the base contact 330 on the second epitaxial layer 324. In accordance with another embodiment, the method includes the farther step of forming a second layer of epitaxial material over the exposed surface prior to forming the epitaxial layer of semiconductor material.

Abstract: A substrate for solder ball assembling a semiconductor device substantially parallel onto said substrate, said device having a plurality of terminals arrayed on a warped surface, comprising an electrically insulating surface including a plurality of discrete metallic areas; said areas having locations matching the locations of said device terminals, and further being suitable for solder ball attachment in surface mount reflow operation; and said areas further having at least one characteristic suitable for accommodating said device warping in solder reflow operation, whereby areas having higher amounts of said characteristic cause said solder balls to become thinner during reflow, resulting in lower solder joint heights, relative to the heights of the remaining solder joints.

Abstract: A method of fabricating a semiconductor device and the device. The device is fabricated by providing a substrate having a region thereover of electrically conductive material, and a dielectric first sidewall spacer on the region of electrically conductive material. A second sidewall spacer is formed over the first sidewall spacer extending to the substrate from a material which is selectively removal relative to the first sidewall spacer. An electrically conductive region is formed contacting the second sidewall spacer and spaced from the substrate. The second sidewall spacer is selectively removable to form an opening between the substrate and the electrically conductive region. The opening is filled with electrically conductive material to electrically couple the electrically conductive material to the substrate.

Abstract: A semiconductor chip mounting method to prevent the occurrence of particles created while mounting the semiconductor chip onto a substrate using ultrasonic thermocompression bonding. The mounting method of the present invention utilizing ultrasonic vibrations involves the following steps: a semiconductor chip having conductive bumps on its main surface is held by its back via an elastic film using a suction tool having a suction hole, the semiconductor chip is positioned against a substrate provided with connection wires corresponding to said conductive bumps, and the semiconductor chip is mounted onto the substrate in such a manner that the conductive bumps connect to said connection wires, and ultrasonic vibrations are applied from the suction tool to the semiconductor chip via said film while said semiconductor chip is being pressed against said substrate in order to bond said conductive bumps with said connection wires.

Abstract: A device and method for eliminating system clock skew in portable computer (15) units used with an expansion base (20) including an oscillator (175), resistors (225, 230) and capacitor (235) tuned to a predetermined propagation delay time to align the portable subsystem clock signals (180, 185, 190) with the expansion base clock signal (195) at the expansion base connector (25) and thus conform to clock skew tolerance specifications for the PCI interface signal standard.

Abstract: An embodiment of the instant invention is an apparatus for diffusing a first substance into a second substance. The apparatus includes a first region where the first substance and the second substance flow in substantially the same direction; and a second region where the first substance and the second substance flow in substantially opposite directions. Preferably, the apparatus is arranged as an outer structure which encompasses the first region and the second region, and which is formed of PP, PTFE, PFA, ECTFE, PVDF, PE, PMMA, ABS, PC, PSO, PES, PEI, PBT, PPS, PEEK, PETG, Keelf, quartz, or any combination thereof. The first substance is, preferably, a substance selected from the group consisting of: ozone, ammonia, HCl, or any combination thereof, and the second substance is a substance selected from the group consisting of: DIW, ammonia, HCl, HF, peroxide, sulfuric acid, or any combination thereof.

Abstract: A data processing device is provided with an indexed-immediate addressing mode for processing streams of data. An instruction register 900 receives an instruction for execution. Decoding circuitry 913 selects a register specified by a field in an instruction to provide an index value. An immediate field from the instruction is combined with the index value by multiplexor 910 to form an address which can be used to access a data value or to form a target address for a branch instruction. Mux control 915 parses the immediate value to determine how to combine the immediate value and the index value.

Abstract: A Viterbi decoder is disclosed that utilizes minimum memory for the decoding operation. A plurality of FIFOs are provided which are divided into two blocks of FIFOS, one for upper states and one for lower states. The operations are calculated utilizing previously stored branch metrics and then determining the new branch metric by retrieving information from the FIFOs, adding the new branch metric defined with the soft decision table and then selecting the most likely path therefrom, and discarding the other. This new branch metric is then stored back into the FIFOs to replace the old. Each branch metric calculation results in a determination of the most likely path for that state and also the decoded data bit for a given state associated with a received symbol. This is stored in a separate memory for each of the nodes, and thereafter, the output is decoded to retrieve the decoded bit stream.

Abstract: A circuit for a write driver including a blanking circuit to output a blanking signal to interrupt a current path. The current path is for first and second currents used to drive an inductive load in an H-bridge circuit. The blanking signal may be delayed by a programmable amount.

Abstract: A dry etch using CFx in an O2-rich environment will clean the contact/via at the same time it retracts a layer of TiN enclosed in the dielectric layer, such as the plate layer in a Capacitor-Under-Bitline DRAM cell.

Abstract: A reduced gain spread spectrum communication system (6) includes transceivers (8) coupled to a base station (10). Each transceiver (8) includes a spreader (28) that spreads a digital packet (26) representing voice using a spreading sequence length smaller than the available spreading gain for a given transmission bandwidth. The spreader (28) can also spread a digital packet (26) representing data using a spreading sequence length greater than the spreading sequence length for voice.

Abstract: An image sensor (10) which can be fabricated using conventional CMOS processes uses a comparator circuit (18) at each pixel (14) having a first input coupled to a photodetector (16) and a second input coupled to a ramp signal generator (30, 32). The ramp signal generator (30, 32) is comprised of a counter (32) and a D/A conversion circuit (30) with the analog output of the D/A conversion circuit (30) forming an analog ramp input to the comparator circuit (18). A counter circuit (32) can be used to drive the digital side of the D/A conversion circuit (30) and configured to count from 0 to 2n−1 to 0, N being the resolution of the photodetector (16). The output of the D/A conversion circuit (30) causes comparator circuit (18) to flip when the ramp signal is equal to the value of the output from the photodetector (16). The comparator circuit (18), in turn, drives a load signal to a register (38) which stores the counter values 32 from pixel (14) at the instant the comparator 18 flips.

Abstract: A video compression method and system including object-oriented compression plus error correction using decoder feedback.