Patents by Inventor Nicholas P Cowley

Nicholas P Cowley 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).

  • Patent number: 9054720
    Abstract: According to various embodiments, a system, an apparatus and a method are presented that relate to determining and correcting signal imbalances between output samples of an analog-to-digital (A-D) converter array (that may be implemented as part of a wideband ADC). A statistic module and correction module are associated with the A-D converter array. The statistic module is configured to receive digital samples from the plurality of A-D converters, and generate a statistical sample value for each A-D converter using a set of digital samples received therefrom. The correction module is configured to, for at least one of the plurality of A-D converters, determine an offset value by comparing the statistical sample value for the at least one of the plurality of A-D converters with a reference value, and apply the offset value to a digital sample from that at least one A-D converter to generate a corrected digital sample.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2015
    Assignee: INTEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Isaac Ali
  • Publication number: 20150155833
    Abstract: A system for amplifying a signal with active power management according to one embodiment includes a first digital to analog converter (DAC) circuit configured to provide a modulated carrier signal; a amplifier circuit coupled to the first DAC, where the amplifier circuit is configured to amplify the modulated carrier signal; an output stage circuit coupled to the amplifier circuit, where the output stage circuit is configured to provide the amplified signal to a network; a second DAC circuit configured to provide a full wave rectified envelope of the modulated carrier signal; and a switching regulator circuit including a voltage reference input coupled to the second DAC circuit, where the switching regulator circuit is configured to provide a supply voltage to the output stage circuit and the supply voltage is modulated in response to the envelope received at the voltage reference input.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 19, 2012
    Publication date: June 4, 2015
    Applicant: INTEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Isaac Ali, William L. Barber
  • Patent number: 9018975
    Abstract: Methods and systems to stress-program a first integrated circuit (IC) block to output a pre-determined value upon activation/reset, such as to support time-zero compensation/trimming. To program, the first block is configured with first-block program parameters to cause the first block to output a pre-determined value. The first block is stressed while configured with the first-block program parameters, to cause the first block to output the pre-determined value without the first-block program parameters. The first block may include a latch designed as a fully balance circuit and may be asymmetrically stressed to alter a characteristic of one path relative to another. The pre-determined value may be selected to compensate for process corner variations and/or other random variations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2015
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Ramnarayanan Muthukaruppan
  • Patent number: 9000843
    Abstract: Various embodiments are directed to apparatuses and methods to generate a first signal representing modulation data and a second signal representing an amplitude of the modulation data, the first signal and the second signal to depend on an output signal and vary a power supply voltage to a gain stage in proportion to the amplitude of the modulation data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2015
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Isaac Ali, William L. Barber
  • Publication number: 20150082062
    Abstract: A memory controller operable for selective memory access to areas of memory exhibiting different attributes leverages different memory capabilities that vary access speed, retention time and power consumption, among others. Different areas of memory have different attributes while remaining available to applications as a single contiguous range of addressable memory. The memory controller employs an operating mode that identifies operational priorities for a computing device, such as speed, power conservation, or efficiency. The memory controller identifies an area of memory based on an expected usage of the data stored in the area, for example an access frequency indicating future retrieval. The memory controller therefore selects areas of memory based on the operating mode and the expected usage of data to be stored in the area according to a heuristic that favors areas of memory based on those exhibiting attributes having a high correspondence to the expected usage of the data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 18, 2013
    Publication date: March 19, 2015
    Inventors: Ruchir Saraswat, Matthias Gries, Nicholas P. Cowley
  • Publication number: 20150042295
    Abstract: A dual mode voltage regulator according to one embodiment includes a passive regulator circuit, a switching regulator circuit, and a controller circuit configured to determine parameters of an external select input. The controller is configured to selectively couple, on a cold boot up, either the passive regulator circuit or the switching regulator circuit between an input voltage port and an output load based on the determination of parameters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2012
    Publication date: February 12, 2015
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Andrew D. Talbot, Mark Mudd, Stephen J. Spinks, Keith Pinson, Colin L. Perry, ALAN J. Martin, Chi Man Kan, Matthew T. Aitken, William L. Barber, Isaac Ali
  • Publication number: 20150035507
    Abstract: A dual mode voltage regulator according to one embodiment includes a passive regulator circuit; a switching regulator circuit; and a controller circuit configured to monitor operational parameters of the dual mode voltage regulator and selectively couple either the passive regulator circuit or the switching regulator circuit between an input voltage port and an output load. The selective coupling is based on the monitoring of parameters including current through the output load, voltage at the input voltage port and voltage at the output load as well as the availability of a system clock signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2011
    Publication date: February 5, 2015
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Andrew D. Talbot, Isaac Ali, Keith Pinson, Colin L. Perry, Matthew T. Aitken, Chi Man Kan, Mark S. Mudd, Stephen J. Spinks, Alan J. Martin, William L. Barber
  • Publication number: 20140349714
    Abstract: Generally, this disclosure describes an apparatus, systems and methods for analog to digital conversion with improved spurious free dynamic range.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 1, 2012
    Publication date: November 27, 2014
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Isaac Ali, William L. Barber
  • Publication number: 20140320102
    Abstract: Generally, this disclosure describes an apparatus, systems and methods for adaptively controlling a voltage regulator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 1, 2012
    Publication date: October 30, 2014
    Inventors: Isaac Ali, Nicholas P. Cowley
  • Publication number: 20140266439
    Abstract: An amplifier, including a voltage-to-current converter (V2I) to control an output current based on an input voltage, resistive degeneration circuitry to reduce baseband gain of the voltage-to-current converter, capacitive degeneration circuitry to increase passband gain of the voltage-to-current converter, and impedance control circuitry to compensate for negative input impedance of the capacitive degeneration circuitry. The V2I may include series-connected complimentary V2Is. The impedance control circuitry may include resistive negative feedback to provide a real part of input impedance, which may increase a frequency range for which the amplifier is linear. Capacitive degeneration and associated phase compensation may increase a frequency range for which the resistive feedback is negative. The amplifier may be configured as a single-input/single-output system and/or as a differential system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 13, 2013
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Inventors: Viatcheslav I. Suetinov, Keith Pinson, Nicholas P. Cowley
  • Patent number: 8823568
    Abstract: Embodiments may comprise logic such as hardware and/or code for high-speed digital-to-analog conversion of signals. Many embodiments comprise a demultiplexer to distribute sets of bits to digital-to-analog converters, the digital-to-analog converters to receive the sets of bits and the operate concurrently to convert the sets of bits from digital representations of signal segments to output analog signal segments, and an interleaver to interleave the analog signal segments from each of digital-to-analog converters in the sequence to generate an analog signal. In many embodiments, the interleaver is adapted to interleave the analog signal segments by latching magnitudes of each of the analog signal segments to an interleaved output near ends of clock cycles to attenuate non-linearities in the magnitudes of each of the analog signal segments when the magnitudes are output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Isaac Ali
  • Publication number: 20140232430
    Abstract: Methods and systems to stress-program a first integrated circuit (IC) block to output a pre-determined value upon activation/reset, such as to support time-zero compensation/trimming. To program, the first block is configured with first-block program parameters to cause the first block to output a pre-determined value. The first block is stressed while configured with the first-block program parameters, to cause the first block to output the pre-determined value without the first-block program parameters. The first block may include a latch designed as a fully balance circuit and may be asymmetrically stressed to alter a characteristic of one path relative to another. The pre-determined value may be selected to compensate for process corner variations and/or other random variations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2013
    Publication date: August 21, 2014
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Ramnarayanan Muthukaruppan
  • Publication number: 20140225667
    Abstract: Various embodiments are directed to apparatuses and methods to generate a first signal representing modulation data and a second signal representing an amplitude of the modulation data, the first signal and the second signal to depend on an output signal and vary a power supply voltage to a gain stage in proportion to the amplitude of the modulation data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2014
    Publication date: August 14, 2014
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Isaac Ali, William L. Barber
  • Publication number: 20140198013
    Abstract: A patch antenna system comprising: an integrated circuit die having an active side including an active layer, and a backside; a dielectric layer formed on the backside; and a redistribution layer formed on the dielectric layer wherein the redistribution layer forms an array of patches. The patch antenna further comprises a plurality of through-silicon vias (TSV), wherein the TSVs electrically connect the array of patches to the active layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 14, 2013
    Publication date: July 17, 2014
    Inventors: Ruchir Saraswat, Nicholas P. Cowley, Uwe Zillmann
  • Patent number: 8754800
    Abstract: Logic such as hardware and/or code for high-speed analog-to-digital conversion of a signal. Logic may receive an analog signal as an input to a sampling receiver. The sampling receiver may implement a successive approximation register (SAR), analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce the digital output. Logic may re-task a comparator of the SAR ADC during a sampling mode to generate a digital comparator output that represents a comparison of a voltage of the charge on a capacitance of the DAC against a threshold reference voltage. The digital comparator output may be applied to the input of automatic gain control (AGC) logic. The AGC logic may receive the digital comparator signal which is representative of one sample of a multiple sample, sample cycle, allowing the AGC logic to generate a gain control signal that is responsive to both total composite average and peak amplitudes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Isaac Ali, Keith Pinson, Viatcheslav I. Suetinov
  • Patent number: 8742843
    Abstract: Various embodiments are directed to apparatuses and methods to reduce average power dissipation in transceiver stages such as power amplifiers and low noise amplifiers (LNAs) that process signals of varying output amplitudes. Power dissipation may be reduced by varying the supply voltage in sympathy with the amplitude of the signal and/or the stage current density which may also be varied in sympathy with the signal amplitude.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Isaac Ali, William L. Barber
  • Patent number: 8736480
    Abstract: An apparatus and method of successive approximation analog-to-digital conversion for receivers comprising that during a sample mode, connecting an array of capacitors to a plurality of sampling switches coupled to a plurality of amplified input signals, and during a conversion mode, connecting in common the array of capacitors to a comparator and isolating the array of capacitors from the plurality of sampling switches. Additionally, filtering is done by the summation of samples at phase offsets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Isaac Ali, Viatcheslav I. Suetinov, Keith Pinson
  • Patent number: 8730074
    Abstract: A method and system for implementing a gain control with fine resolution and minimal additional circuitry. The fine digital gain control may be deployed in conjunction with a coarse switched gain at the front end of a sampling receiver. The fine digital gain control mechanism is configured to receive an input signal and moderate gains applied to the received input signal. The output of a low noise amplifier (LNA) is connected to a switched attenuator which provides fine gain stepped gain control. The output of this stage is connected to the switch stage whose output is connected to a charge redistribution successive approximation register digital-to-analog converter (SAR ADC) configured to convert an analog waveform into a digital representation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Isaac Ali, Viatcheslav I. Suetinov, Keith Pinson
  • Publication number: 20140091960
    Abstract: Logic such as hardware and/or code for high-speed analog-to-digital conversion of a signal. Logic may receive an analog signal as an input to a sampling receiver. The sampling receiver may implement a successive approximation register (SAR), analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce the digital output. Logic may re-task a comparator of the SAR ADC during a sampling mode to generate a digital comparator output that represents a comparison of a voltage of the charge on a capacitance of the DAC against a threshold reference voltage. The digital comparator output may be applied to the input of automatic gain control (AGC) logic. The AGC logic may receive the digital comparator signal which is representative of one sample of a multiple sample, sample cycle, allowing the AGC logic to generate a gain control signal that is responsive to both total composite average and peak amplitudes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2012
    Publication date: April 3, 2014
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Isaac Ali, Keith Pinson, Viatcheslav I. Suetinov
  • Publication number: 20140091955
    Abstract: According to various embodiments, a system, an apparatus and a method are presented that relate to determining and correcting signal imbalances between output samples of an analog-to-digital (A-D) converter array (that may be implemented as part of a wideband ADC). A statistic module and correction module are associated with the A-D converter array. The statistic module is configured to receive digital samples from the plurality of A-D converters, and generate a statistical sample value for each A-D converter using a set of digital samples received therefrom. The correction module is configured to, for at least one of the plurality of A-D converters, determine an offset value by comparing the statistical sample value for the at least one of the plurality of A-D converters with a reference value, and apply the offset value to a digital sample from that at least one A-D converter to generate a corrected digital sample.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 19, 2012
    Publication date: April 3, 2014
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Cowley, Isaac Ali