Patents by Inventor Henrik Thomsen

Henrik Thomsen has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20200162823
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates generally to a microphone assembly. The microphone assembly has an acoustic activity detection mode of operation when the electrical circuit is clocked using an internal clock signal generator in the absence of an external clock signal at a host interface, and an electrical circuit of the microphone assembly is configured to provide an interrupt signal to the host interface upon detection of acoustic activity by the electrical circuit. The electrical circuit is configured to control the operating mode of the microphone assembly based on a frequency of the external clock signal in response to providing the interrupt signal and is configured to provide data representing the electrical signal to the host interface using the external clock signal received at the host interface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 26, 2020
    Publication date: May 21, 2020
    Applicant: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Claus Erdmann Fürst, Henrik Thomsen, Michael Deruginsky, Dibyendu Nandy, Oddy Nopporn Khamharn, Aziz Yurttas, Svetslav Gueorguiev, Anders Mortensen
  • Publication number: 20200135164
    Abstract: A digital microphone device includes circuitry that can reduce the risk of noise caused due to an idle tone frequency component in a digital signal output by the digital microphone device. In stereo mode and other applications where interference occurs between two or more such microphones, each microphone device includes a digital output having a corresponding idle tone frequency, one of which is offset to shift noise components outside of a desired frequency range.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2019
    Publication date: April 30, 2020
    Applicant: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Henrik Thomsen, Yu Du
  • Patent number: 10559293
    Abstract: A digital microphone device includes circuitry that can reduce the risk of noise caused due to an idle tone frequency component in a digital signal output by the digital microphone device. In stereo mode and other applications where interference occurs between two or more such microphones, each microphone device includes a digital output having a corresponding idle tone frequency, one of which is offset to shift noise components outside of a desired frequency range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2020
    Assignee: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Henrik Thomsen, Yu Du
  • Publication number: 20190387326
    Abstract: A microphone assembly comprising: a housing including a base, a cover, and a sound port; a MEMS transducer element disposed in the housing, the transducer element configured to convert sound into a microphone signal voltage at a transducer output; and a processing circuit. The processing circuit comprising a transconductance amplifier comprising an input node connected to the transducer output for receipt of the microphone signal voltage, the transconductance amplifier being configured to generate an amplified current signal representative of the microphone signal voltage in accordance with a predetermined transconductance of the transconductance amplifier; and an analog-to-digital converter comprising an input node connected to receive the amplified current signal, said analog-to-digital converter being configured to sample and quantize the amplified current signal to generate a corresponding digital microphone signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 18, 2019
    Publication date: December 19, 2019
    Applicant: KNOWLES ELECTRONICS, LLC
    Inventors: Kristian Adelbert Hansen, Henrik Thomsen, Mohammad Shajaan, Jens Tingleff, Claus Erdmann Fürst
  • Patent number: 10499150
    Abstract: A microphone assembly includes a transducer and a processing circuit. The processing circuit includes an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured to receive, sample and quantize an electrical signal generated by the transducer to generate a corresponding digital signal. The processing circuit includes a feedback path including a digital loop filter configured to receive and filter the digital signal to provide a first digital feedback signal and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) configured to convert the first digital feedback signal into a corresponding analog feedback signal. The processing circuit additionally includes a summing node configured to combine the electrical signal and the analog feedback signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2019
    Assignee: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Mohammad Shajaan, Claus Erdmann Fürst, Per Flemming Høvesten, Kim Spetzler Berthelsen, Henrik Thomsen
  • Publication number: 20190239001
    Abstract: A microphone assembly includes an acoustic filter with a first highpass cut-off frequency. The microphone assembly additionally includes a forward signal path and a feedback signal path. The forward signal path is configured to amplify or buffer an electrical signal generated by a transducer in response to sound and to convert the electrical signal to a digital signal. The feedback signal path is configured to generate a digital control signal based on the digital signal and to generate and output a sequence of variable current pulses based on the digital control signal. The variable current pulses suppress frequencies of the electrical signal below a second highpass cut-off frequency, higher than the first highpass cut-off frequency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 4, 2019
    Publication date: August 1, 2019
    Applicants: Knowles Electronics, LLC, Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Mohammad SHAJAAN, Claus Erdmann FÜRST, Per Flemming HØVESTEN, Kim Spetzler BERTHELSEN, Henrik THOMSEN
  • Patent number: 10313796
    Abstract: A microphone assembly includes an acoustic sensor configured to produce an electrical signal and an electrical circuit including a voice activity detector coupled to an output of the acoustic sensor. The microphone assembly further includes an internal clock signal generator and a host interface coupled to the electrical circuit. The host interface has external connections including an external clock signal and a data connection. The microphone assembly includes an acoustic activity detection mode of operation when the electrical circuit is clocked by the internal clock signal generator in the absence of an external clock signal at the host interface. The microphone assembly has a plurality of operating modes controlled by an external clock signal received in response to an interrupt signal provided by the electrical circuit. The electrical circuit is configured to provide data representing the electrical signal at the host interface when the external clock signal is received.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2019
    Assignee: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Claus Erdmann Fürst, Henrik Thomsen, Michael Deruginsky, Dibyendu Nandy, Oddy Nopporn Khamharn
  • Publication number: 20190124440
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a microphone assembly including a multibit analog-to-digital converter configured to generate N-bit samples representative of a microphone signal. The microphone assembly also includes a first digital-to-digital converter configured to generate a corresponding M-bit digital signal based on N-bit digital samples, wherein N and M are positive integers and N>M. The microphone assembly may include a data interface configured to repeatedly receive samples of the M-bit digital signal and write bits of the M-bit digital signal to a data frame.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2018
    Publication date: April 25, 2019
    Applicant: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Andrzej PAWLOWSKI, Kasper STRANGE, Kim Spetzler BERTHELSEN, Henrik THOMSEN
  • Patent number: 10257616
    Abstract: A microphone assembly includes an acoustic transducer element configured to convert sound into a microphone signal in accordance with a transducer frequency response including a first highpass cut-off frequency. The microphone assembly additionally includes a processing circuit including a signal amplification path configured to receive, sample and digitize the microphone signal to provide a digital microphone signal. A frequency response of the signal amplification path includes a second highpass cut-off frequency which is higher than the first highpass cut-off frequency of the acoustic transducer element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2019
    Assignee: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Mohammad Shajaan, Claus Erdmann Fürst, Per Flemming Høvesten, Kim Spetzler Berthelsen, Henrik Thomsen
  • Publication number: 20190080680
    Abstract: A digital microphone device includes circuitry that can reduce the risk of noise caused due to an idle tone frequency component in a digital signal output by the digital microphone device. In stereo mode and other applications where interference occurs between two or more such microphones, each microphone device includes a digital output having a corresponding idle tone frequency, one of which is offset to shift noise components outside of a desired frequency range.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 7, 2018
    Publication date: March 14, 2019
    Applicant: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Henrik Thomsen, Yu Du
  • Patent number: 10165359
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a microphone assembly including a multibit analog-to-digital converter configured to generate N-bit samples representative of a microphone signal. The microphone assembly also includes a first digital-to-digital converter configured to generate a corresponding M-bit digital signal based on N-bit digital samples, wherein N and M are positive integers and N>M. The microphone assembly may include a data interface configured to repeatedly receive samples of the M-bit digital signal and write bits of the M-bit digital signal to a data frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2018
    Assignee: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Andrzej Pawlowski, Kasper Strange, Kim Spetzler Berthelsen, Henrik Thomsen
  • Publication number: 20180317019
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to microphone apparatus. One microphone apparatus includes an acoustic sensor, an electrical circuit including an acoustic activity detector, a frequency detection circuit and a control block, an internal clock signal generator coupled to the electrical circuit, and a host interface with external connections including a connection for an external clock signal and data. The microphone assembly has an acoustic activity detection mode of operation when the electrical circuit is clocked using the internal clock signal generator in the absence of an external clock signal at the host interface, and the electrical circuit is configured to provide an interrupt signal to the host interface upon detection of acoustic activity by the electrical circuit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2018
    Publication date: November 1, 2018
    Applicant: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Claus Erdmann Fürst, Henrik Thomsen, Michael Deruginsky, Dibyendu Nandy, Oddy Nopporn Khamharn, Aziz Yurttas, Svetslav Gueorguiev, Anders Mortensen
  • Publication number: 20180167727
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a microphone assembly including a multibit analog-to-digital converter configured to generate N-bit samples representative of a microphone signal. The microphone assembly also includes a first digital-to-digital converter configured to generate a corresponding M-bit digital signal based on N-bit digital samples, wherein N and M are positive integers and N>M. The microphone assembly may include a data interface configured to repeatedly receive samples of the M-bit digital signal and write bits of the M-bit digital signal to a data frame.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 8, 2018
    Publication date: June 14, 2018
    Applicant: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Andrzej PAWLOWSKI, Kasper STRANGE, Kim Spetzler BERTHELSEN, Henrik THOMSEN
  • Patent number: 9894437
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a microphone assembly comprising a multibit analog-to-digital converter configured to receive, sample, and quantize a microphone signal to generate N-bit digital microphone samples representative of the microphone signal at a first sampling frequency. The microphone assembly also comprises a first digital-to-digital converter configured to receive, quantize, and noise-shape the N-bit digital microphone samples to generate a corresponding M-bit Pulse Density Modulated (PDM) signal, wherein N and M are positive integers, and N>M. The microphone assembly may comprise a SoundWire compliant data interface configured to repeatedly receive samples of the M-bit PDM signal and write bits of the M-bit PDM signal to a SoundWire data frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2018
    Assignee: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Andrzej Pawlowski, Kasper Strange, Kim Spetzler Berthelsen, Henrik Thomsen
  • Publication number: 20180027338
    Abstract: A microphone assembly includes an acoustic transducer element configured to convert sound into a microphone signal in accordance with a transducer frequency response including a first highpass cut-off frequency. The microphone assembly additionally includes a processing circuit including a signal amplification path configured to receive, sample and digitize the microphone signal to provide a digital microphone signal. A frequency response of the signal amplification path includes a second highpass cut-off frequency which is higher than the first highpass cut-off frequency of the acoustic transducer element.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 22, 2016
    Publication date: January 25, 2018
    Applicant: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Mohammad SHAJAAN, Claus Erdmann FÜRST, Per Flemming HØVESTEN, Kim Spetzler BERTHELSEN, Henrik THOMSEN
  • Patent number: 9872593
    Abstract: A tipping method for a tipping arrangement which includes a first element (1) and a second element (2), arranged between a moveable base unit (4) and a rotatable container (3). The container (3) is rotated by moving the second element (2) along a first track (7) on the first element (1). The second element (2) is moved along the track (7) by rotating the second element (2) relative to the first element (1). A number of engaging parts (9, 10) may be arranged on the tracks (7, 8) of the elements (1, 2), respectively. An interlocking arrangement may be arranged between the first element (1) and the second element (2) to secure the second element (2) in a starting position. A movable unit includes the tipping arrangement and a section unit, with the container (3) locked in a vertical position by a locking arrangement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2018
    Assignee: NILFISK A/S
    Inventors: Henrik Thomsen, Carl Olsen, Henrik Jeppesen, Richard Hickmott, Alistair David Morton
  • Publication number: 20180014123
    Abstract: A microphone assembly includes a transducer element and a processing circuit. The processing circuit includes an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured to receive, sample and quantize a microphone signal generated by the transducer element to generate a corresponding digital microphone signal. The processing circuit includes a feedback path including a digital loop filter configured to receive and filter the digital microphone signal to provide a first digital feedback signal and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) configured to convert the first digital feedback signal into a corresponding analog feedback signal. The processing circuit additionally includes a summing node at the transducer output configured to combine the microphone signal and the analog feedback signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 5, 2016
    Publication date: January 11, 2018
    Applicant: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Mohammad SHAJAAN, Claus Erdmann FÜRST, Per Flemming HØVESTEN, Kim Spetzler BERTHELSEN, Henrik THOMSEN
  • Patent number: 9830913
    Abstract: A microphone assembly includes an acoustic sensor and a voice activity detector on an integrated circuit coupled to an external-device interface. The acoustic sensor produces an electrical signal representative of acoustic energy detected by the sensor. A filter bank separates data representative of the acoustic energy into a plurality of frequency bands. A power tracker obtains a power estimate for at least one band, including a first estimate based on relatively fast changes in a power metric of the data and a second estimate based on relatively slow changes in a power metric of the data. The presence of voice activity in the electrical signal is based upon the power estimate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Henrik Thomsen, Dibyendu Nandy
  • Patent number: 9831844
    Abstract: Approaches are provided for an apparatus that includes an input buffer, an analog-to-digital converter coupled to the input buffer, a decompress module coupled to the analog to digital converter, and a gain control module coupled to the input buffer and the decompress module. The input buffer has a first adjustable gain and operating in the analog domain. The analog-to-digital converter converts the input analog data received from the input buffer into digital data. The decompress module operates in the digital domain, and is configured to decompress the digital data received from the analog-to-digital converter. The decompress module has a second adjustable gain and produces an output digital signal. The gain control module determines when to compensate for changes in characteristics the input analog data by selectively controlling the first gain of the input buffer in the analog domain and the second gain of the decompress module in the digital domain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Aziz Yurrtas, Per Flemming Høvesten, Svetoslav Gueorguiev, Claus Erdmann Fürst, Henrik Thomsen
  • Publication number: 20170322128
    Abstract: A filtration system for a liquid comprising a container (2) having an internal container volume (11), a particulate filter portion (10) for allowing passage of the liquid into the internal container volume (11) to forma liquid sample aliquot and a first opening (14) providing access to the internal container volume (11); the filtration system further comprising a non-porous housing (4) configured to provide an internal space (28) for receiving the container (2), the internal space (28) being dimensioned to provide a volume such that the amount left unoccupied by the received container (2) is less than the internal container volume (11).
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 16, 2014
    Publication date: November 9, 2017
    Applicant: FOSS Analytical A/S
    Inventors: Henrik THOMSEN, Christian MICHELSEN