Patents by Inventor Luiz Franca-Neto

Luiz Franca-Neto 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: 20100157457
    Abstract: Impedance compensation features are used along the transmission-line path between a transmitter/driver/source and the receiver/transducer to compensate for the impedance discontinuities or mismatches (for example, those caused by physical interconnection features) and/or to improve the frequency response of the signal transfer along the transmission line. The impedance compensation features are non-uniformities with impedance characteristics selected to compensate for the target impedance discontinuities. The compensation features can be non-uniformities (geometric structures designed to have specific impedance characteristics) in the electrically conductive traces that are integrated in the interconnect transmission line between the transmitter/driver/source and the receiver/transducer. The effective impedance level of the transmission line can be lowered or raised using the compensation features.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2008
    Publication date: June 24, 2010
    Inventors: John Thomas Contreras, Luiz Franca-Neto
  • Publication number: 20100142096
    Abstract: In a method of biasing a slider, a bias voltage is generated for biasing a slider. The bias voltage is integratedly coupled to a conductive body of the slider via an existing signal path of the slider such that the slider is biased with the bias voltage. The existing signal path is primarily used for conveying another signal to or from the slider but at least sometimes conveys the bias voltage to the conductive body in an integral fashion along with another signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 4, 2008
    Publication date: June 10, 2010
    Inventors: John Contreras, Luiz Franca-Neto, Bernhard Knigge
  • Publication number: 20100061005
    Abstract: A signaling apparatus and method are described that use reflected signals to increase the total current delivered to a receiver. Dynamic source-side transmission line termination control is employed to generate reflected signals that constructively add to a nonreflected signal to enhance the signal at the receiver. Switching controls selectively connect and disconnect the transmission line source-side termination resistors to either provide signal termination or remove it. Driver designs using either voltage or current sources for use in signaling systems (including, for example, magnetic storage devices with inductive coil based write heads) are described.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2008
    Publication date: March 11, 2010
    Inventors: John Thomas Contreras, Luiz Franca-Neto
  • Patent number: 7660068
    Abstract: In a method of pre-contact detection and active damping of air bearing vibrations in a hard disk drive, a slider is isolated from ground. The slider is then capacitively coupled with a hard disk of the hard disk drive via a thermal fly-height control (TFC) heating element. An alternating current (AC) signal is applied to the slider via the TFC heating element to control the amplitude of the slider.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2010
    Assignee: Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Peter M. Baumgart, John T. Contreras, Luiz Franca-Neto, Bernhard E. Knigge, Richard Kroeker, Gurinder P. Singh
  • Patent number: 7069042
    Abstract: A tone generator in a transceiver of a communications device may generate an arbitrary signal using two shift registers to generate the time intervals. During each time interval, a different capacitor is switched onto the node to change the voltage potential on that node. The amplitude of the waveform during each time interval is changed to provide the desired tone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2006
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventor: Luiz Franca-Neto
  • Patent number: 7049855
    Abstract: Analog circuits for providing one or more waveform parameters, e.g., the DC offset or average, of an analog input signal. Separate biasing is not necessarily required. Some embodiments comprise field-effect-transistors (FETs) configured in various diode-connected configurations that take advantage of leakage currents through the FETs so that long resistors or large capacitors are not necessarily required. One embodiment comprises two diode-connected FETs to provide an unbiased DC offset voltage of an analog input signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2006
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Krishnamurthy Soumyanath, Luiz Franca-Neto
  • Publication number: 20050218974
    Abstract: An amplifier has a band pass response. The band pass response may be set by setting corner frequencies of low pass filters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2004
    Publication date: October 6, 2005
    Inventors: Luiz Franca-Neto, Stephen Pawlowski
  • Publication number: 20050223306
    Abstract: In some embodiments, an apparatus and a system, as well as a method and an article, may include translating a bit stream into a multi-tone communications signal having a substantially simultaneous multi-tone signaling bandwidth of greater than about 20 percent of an associated carrier frequency. In some embodiments, an apparatus and a system, as well as a method and an article, may include determining a presence of a plurality of tones included in a multi-tone communications signal by comparing a combined amount of two measured orthogonal signal components to a threshold value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2004
    Publication date: October 6, 2005
    Inventor: Luiz Franca-Neto
  • Publication number: 20050221760
    Abstract: An ultrawideband radio frequency pulse is generated by shaping a carrier signal having a selected frequency with a window function. The shaped carrier is gated to produce the ultrawideband pulse. In further embodiments, the window function comprises a sinusoidal function, and the ultrawideband pulse is formed via a mixer and a CMOS radio frequency switch.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2004
    Publication date: October 6, 2005
    Inventors: Keith Tinsley, Jeffery Foerster, Minnie Ho, Evan Green, Luiz Franca-Neto, Siva Narendra
  • Publication number: 20050148308
    Abstract: An apparatus and a system, as well as a method and an article, may include adjusting a duty cycle of a switching amplifier input by changing the amplitude of an analog message signal to provide a modulated carrier having a monotonically-increasing fundamental frequency component.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2003
    Publication date: July 7, 2005
    Inventor: Luiz Franca-Neto
  • Publication number: 20050133909
    Abstract: An apparatus and a system, as well as a method and an article, may include operating a processor included in a die having at least one scalable component of a circuit, including one or more radio frequency circuits, in electrical communication with a non-scalable component of the circuit located on a structure, such as a substrate or package to which the die may be coupled. The die may be constructed so that it does not include another non-scalable component of the circuit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2003
    Publication date: June 23, 2005
    Inventor: Luiz Franca-Neto
  • Publication number: 20050134410
    Abstract: An apparatus and a system, as well as a method and an article, may include operating a processor included in a die having a plurality of scalable amplifier circuits in electrical communication with the processor and with a non-scalable power addition circuit to couple to a common antenna structure.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2003
    Publication date: June 23, 2005
    Inventor: Luiz Franca-Neto
  • Publication number: 20040087272
    Abstract: A tone generator in a transceiver of a communications device may generate an arbitrary signal using two shift registers to generate the time intervals. During each time interval, a different capacitor is switched onto the node to change the voltage potential on that node. The amplitude of the waveform during each time interval is changed to provide the desired tone.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 1, 2002
    Publication date: May 6, 2004
    Inventor: Luiz Franca-Neto
  • Patent number: 6714054
    Abstract: Analog circuits for providing one or more waveform parameters, e.g., the DC offset or average, of an analog input signal. Separate biasing is not necessarily required. Some embodiments comprise field-effect-transistors (FETs) configured in various diode-connected configurations that take advantage of leakage currents through the FETs so that long resistors or large capacitors are not necessarily required. One embodiment comprises two diode-connected FETs to provide an unbiased DC offset voltage of an analog input signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2002
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2004
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Krishnamurthy Soumyanath, Luiz Franca-Neto
  • Publication number: 20030001654
    Abstract: Analog circuits for providing one or more waveform parameters, e.g., the DC offset or average, of an analog input signal. Separate biasing is not necessarily required. Some embodiments comprise field-effect-transistors (FETs) configured in various diode-connected configurations that take advantage of leakage currents through the FETs so that long resistors or large capacitors are not necessarily required. One embodiment comprises two diode-connected FETs to provide an unbiased DC offset voltage of an analog input signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 8, 2002
    Publication date: January 2, 2003
    Inventors: Krishnamurthy Soumyanath, Luiz Franca-Neto
  • Publication number: 20030001653
    Abstract: Analog circuits for providing one or more waveform parameters, e.g., the DC offset or average, of an analog input signal. Separate biasing is not necessarily required. Some embodiments comprise field-effect-transistors (FETs) configured in various diode-connected configurations that take advantage of leakage currents through the FETs so that long resistors or large capacitors are not necessarily required. One embodiment comprises two diode-connected FETs to provide an unbiased DC offset voltage of an analog input signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2001
    Publication date: January 2, 2003
    Inventors: Krishnamurthy Soumyanath, Luiz Franca-Neto