Abstract: A thermal accelerometer device that provides a compensation for sensitivity variations over temperature. The thermal accelerometer includes signal conditioning circuitry operative to receive analog signals representing a differential temperature is indicative of a sensed acceleration. The signal conditioning circuitry includes serially connected A-to-D and D-to-A converters, which implement a temperature dependent function and process the received signals to provide a compensation for sensitivity variations over a range of ambient temperature. To provide a ratiometric compensation for variations in power supply voltage, a buffered voltage proportional to the supply voltage is provided as a reference voltage to the D-to-A converter. The thermal accelerometer includes a self-test circuit for verifying the integrity of a heater, temperature sensors, and circuitry included within the device.

Abstract: An integrated convective accelerometer device. The device includes a thermal acceleration sensor having a thermopile and a heater element; control circuitry for providing closed-loop control of the thermopile common-mode voltage; an instrumentation amplifier; clock generation circuitry; voltage reference circuitry; a temperature sensor; and, output amplifiers. The device can be operated in an absolute or ratiometric mode. Further, the device is formed in a silicon substrate using standard semiconductor processes and is packaged in a standard integrated circuit package.

Abstract: A digital-to-analog converter with cascaded coarse and fine resistor divider strings. The fine resistor string contains 2.sup.N or more resistor segments controlled by N number of fine divider control bits. Resistors located at each end of the fine divider string are a fraction of the nominal value for the remaining fine divider resistor segments. The on-resistance of switches coupling the coarse and fine resistor divider strings is less than or equal to a predetermined fraction of the nominal value for the fine divider resistor segments to minimize contributions to linearity error. The DAC uses all CMOS devices including NMOS and PMOS switches which utilize approximately the full rail-to-rail voltage of the voltage source without the use of additional amplifiers. The DAC provides linearity of about one-fourth LSB.

Abstract: A temperature compensated crystal oscillator with an improved phase noise characteristic and a fast start up time includes a large time constant low-pass filter coupled to a temperature compensation circuit. At start up the low pass filter is effectively bypassed to enable the temperature compensation voltage and oscillator output frequency to settle quickly. A capacitance in the low-pass filter is precharged by a precharge circuit to match the temperature compensation voltage without disturbing the temperature compensation circuit and the concurrent settling of the oscillator. When the capacitance is fully charged, the low-pass filter is enabled without unsettling the oscillator output frequency.