Patents Examined by Stacey Sorawat
  • Patent number: 8355689
    Abstract: The invention relates to an autarkic field device or an autarkic radio adapter (2) for a field device (1), of automation technology fed with limited energy via an energy supply unit (3) associated, or associable, with the field device (1) or the radio adapter (2), characterized in that, between the energy supply unit (3) and an internal voltage source (4), whose voltage exceeds, or at times can exceed, the voltage of the energy supply unit (3), a barrier (5a; 5b) of at least one diode group having at least two diodes (6) connected in parallel is arranged, which blocks flow of electrical current from the internal voltage source (4) to the energy supply unit (3) or to the connection terminals (7) of the field device (1) or of the radio adapter (2) for the energy supply unit (3).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2013
    Assignee: Endress + Hauser Process Solutions AG
    Inventors: Stefan Probst, Marc Fiedler
  • Patent number: 8346188
    Abstract: A nonlinearity calibration system and method for a frequency modulation (FM) transmitter. A nonlinearity calibration system for a FM transmitter includes a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) with a variable capacitor array. The DCO receives a calibrated fine code for tuning the variable capacitor array to modulate a digitally encoded audio signal transmitted by the FM transmitter to a modulation frequency. The nonlinearity calibration system also includes a nonlinearity estimator for generating an approximation of an integral nonlinearity associated with processing of a fine code to tune the variable capacitor array. The nonlinearity calibration system further includes a subtractor for subtracting the approximation of the integral nonlinearity from the fine code to generate the calibrated fine code.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventors: Karthik Subburaj, Krishnaswamy Nagaraj
  • Patent number: 8326243
    Abstract: The electronic circuit includes: a micro controller unit; a timer operable to measure a standby time of the micro controller unit; a buffer circuit connected with an output-signal terminal of the timer; a logic circuit controlled by an output signal of the timer and an output signal of the micro controller unit; and a power-on switch controlled by the logic circuit. The buffer circuit has no protection diode connected with an input terminal thereof on a power-source side, and connected to a common power source shared with the micro controller unit. The switch is one for controlling the power source of the micro controller unit and buffer circuit. The micro controller unit is made to transition to an active state to either a standby state or a power-source cutoff state during the standby time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tatsuo Nakagawa, Masayuki Miyazaki
  • Patent number: 8315587
    Abstract: In one implementation, a receiver may have an analog front end with an amplifier to receive a radio frequency (RF) signal and a mixer to downconvert the signal to a baseband signal. Then, a demodulator may receive the baseband signal and obtain an audio signal therefrom. Still further, a controller may be coupled to receive a control signal corresponding to a variable impedance level, and control a local oscillator coupled to the mixer responsive to the control signal. The variable impedance may be controlled by a user to tune to the channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Shahram Tadayon, Wade Robert Gillham, Peter J. Vancorenland, Daniel Mark Thompson
  • Patent number: 8275327
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a wrist watch type mobile terminal, and may include a conductive metal housing connected with a band or strap to be worn on a human body, and formed to be operable as an antenna at a specific bandwidth, a wireless communication module configured to process a signal transmitted and/or received by the housing, and a feeding portion configured to electrically connect the metal housing with the wireless communication module. The metal housing thereof may function as an antenna transmitting and/or receiving a specific bandwidth, and thus has an advantage of facilitating the implementation of the wireless performance and improving the appearance thereof, compared to a case in which an antenna is disposed within the housing having a small and limited size.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2012
    Assignee: LG Electronics Inc.
    Inventors: Kyung-Hack Yi, Hyun-Jun Kim, Man-Su Shin, An-Sun Hyun
  • Patent number: 8260233
    Abstract: The IFBPF (80) can variably set a passband width (WF) and an attenuation slope (KF). The bandwidth control circuit (102), which is constituted in hardware, controls the WF in accordance with the receiving state, which is composed of a combination of the receiving electric field intensity, the modulation degree, and the intensity of the adjacent-channel interference. A microcomputer (54) controls the KF on the basis of a program stored in a nonvolatile memory (60) and finely adjusts the effective passband width. Control of the WF contradictory for prevention of audio distortion and control of adjacent-channel interference is required when high modulation and adjacent-channel interference exist in a weak electric field state, and the setting becomes difficult. In this particular case, a configuration in which the KF can be modified by a program allows an advantageous receiving state to be readily obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2012
    Assignees: Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., Sanyo Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Keiji Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 8260223
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a mixer circuit and method of frequency transformation, wherein an input signal is switched in accordance with a first local oscillator signal and in accordance with at least one second local oscillator signal having a smaller duty cycle than said first local oscillator signal, or having a respective predetermined phase shift with respect to said first local oscillator signal. Output signals obtained by the switching in accordance with the first and at least one second local oscillator signals are summed and the polarity of one of said first local oscillator signal and said at least one second local oscillator signal is switched in response to a control input, to thereby switch between a harmonic-rejection mode and a sub-harmonic mixing mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2012
    Assignee: NXP B.V.
    Inventor: Xin He
  • Patent number: 8233859
    Abstract: A technique to provide accurate and efficient transmit power control by providing offset values to modify a base input gain value for a gain control circuit used to set a transmit power gain in a mobile phone. The modified gain value compensates for a ripple offset and power level offset caused by a difference in operating temperature and operating frequency from values obtained during calibration at a calibration frequency and temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Huili Yu, Horace Ng
  • Patent number: 8224268
    Abstract: One aspect of the invention includes a communication system that includes a tone generator configured to generate a first tone, a second tone, and a third tone. The third tone can have a frequency that is a harmonic product of at least one of the frequencies of the first and second tones. A transmitter that includes a predistortion system transmits a test signal comprising the first, second, and third tones. A receiver that is communicatively coupled to the transmitter receives and processes a received test signal corresponding to the test signal. The system further includes a controller that generates a set of correction coefficients based on a measured interaction of the third tone with a non-linear signal component in the received test signal. The set of correction coefficients can be provided to the predistortion system for substantially linearizing communication signals transmitted from the transmitter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventors: Henry P. Largey, Dallas L. Webster
  • Patent number: 8224275
    Abstract: Embodiments of a SAW-less RF receiver front-end that includes a frequency translated notch filter (FTNF) are presented. An FTNF includes a passive mixer and a baseband impedance. The baseband impedance includes capacitors that form a low-Q band-stop filter. The passive mixer is configured to translate the baseband impedance to a higher frequency. The translated baseband impedance forms a high-Q notch filter and is presented at the input of the FTNF. The FTNF can be fully integrated in CMOS IC technology (or others, e.g., Bipolar, BiCMOS, and SiGe) and applied in wireless receiver systems including EDGE/GSM, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Bluetooth, and wireless LANs (e.g., IEEE 802.11). In addition, embodiments of a multi-band SAW-less RF receiver front-end and techniques to share components of FTNFs included within the multi-band SAW-less RF receiver front-end are presented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Ahmad Mirzaei, Hooman Darabi
  • Patent number: 8219053
    Abstract: A system and method of automatically tuning a reading device that remotely monitors RFID tags or transponders. The reading device utilizes the phase signal of an antenna signal wherein the harmonic of the antenna signal is filtered through a signal coupling transformer and utilizes the antenna current reading to determine the optimal capacitance setting for the reader by adjusting capacitors and storing the relative phase signal and level of current in a processor. In one embodiment, the method comprises supplying power to the reading device, monitoring the power supply, storing data related to the monitored power supply, emitting a signal from an antenna, filtering the harmonic of such signal, outputting the phase signal to a processor and adjusting capacitors based on the phase signal and monitored current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2012
    Assignee: Destron Fearing Corporation
    Inventors: Ezequiel Mejia, Yuri Smirnov
  • Patent number: 8208882
    Abstract: An antenna sense circuit includes a detector and a level shifter. The detector consists of a voltage drop component, a transistor component, a first resistor component, and a second resistor component. The voltage drop component is coupled between a first power supply and a first terminal of the first resistor component. The second resistor component has a first terminal coupled to a second terminal of the first resistor component and a second terminal coupled to a second power supply. The transistor component has a control terminal coupled to the second terminal of the first resistor component and the first terminal of the second resistor component, a second connection terminal coupled to the first power supply, and a first connection terminal for outputting a first detecting signal. The level shifter adjusts a voltage level of the first detecting signal to generate a second detecting signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2012
    Assignee: Wistron NeWeb Corporation
    Inventors: Chen-An Hsieh, Cheng-Hsiung Hsu, Tsai-Wang Chang
  • Patent number: 8170492
    Abstract: A received total wideband power in a wireless communications system is measured (202) a number of times during a time interval. A site communication throughput is determined (204) and processed (206) into a time averaged site communication throughput. A probability distribution for received total wideband power is estimated (210) from the measured received total wide-band power. An estimate of a noise floor measure is computed (214) based on the probability distribution for received total wideband power and a noise rise measure is calculated (218) based on the probability distribution for received total wideband power and the estimate of a noise floor measure. According to the present invention, an adjustment (208) of the noise rise measure is provided based on the averaged site communication throughput.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Inventors: Torbjörn Wigren, Claes Tidestav
  • Patent number: 8145163
    Abstract: A method of detecting a received signal, which is received by a receiving side of a communication system, is disclosed. The present invention includes comparing signal quality relevant information of the received signal to a prescribed reference value, selecting a pre-processing scheme to be applied to the received signal according to a result of the comparing step, and detecting a signal by applying the selected pre-processing scheme to the received signal. Thus, a pre-processing scheme for received signal detection can be differently applied according to a size of quality relevant information of a received signal. Accordingly, the present invention lowers a false alarm probability and/or a miss occurrence probability of the received signal, thereby raising a signal detection probability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2012
    Assignee: LG Electronics Inc.
    Inventor: Sang Mi Yi
  • Patent number: 8135370
    Abstract: Adjacent interference is reliably detected in an FM tuner. A receiving field strength judgment circuit (102) compares a reception field strength signal SM-DC input from an S-meter circuit (92) and a reference voltage Vref2, and outputs a receiving strength judgment signal SRE. An SD band judgment circuit (104) uses a window comparator to determine, based on an f-V conversion characteristic of a detection output SDET, whether or not a voltage ?V generated based on SDET is within a voltage range corresponding to a narrow band WN, and whether or not the voltage ?V is within a voltage range corresponding to a wide band WW; and outputs determination signals SBD-N, SBD-W corresponding respectively to WN, WW. An SD circuit (106) performs a station detection based on SRE and SBD-N, and determines the presence or absence of adjacent interference based on, e.g., SBD-N and SBD-W.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2012
    Assignees: Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., Sanyo Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Keiji Kobayashi