Abstract: A stethoscope system includes a wearable stethoscope patch to be worn by a user that includes a substrate, an accelerometer in the substrate, the accelerometer configured to sense acoustic pressure waves in the user's body to produce a first electrical signal, and an antenna over the substrate and in electric communication with the accelerometer, wherein the antenna is configured to wirelessly transmit measurement data based on the first electrical signal. The wearable stethoscope patch also includes a control device that receives the measurement data wirelessly from the antenna and produces stethoscopic data based on the measurement data.

Abstract: An apparatus for sensing the rotation of a brushless DC fan includes the fan and a sense/driver circuit and a capacitance. The sense/driver circuit is coupled to the fan to receive a sense input signal including a fluctuating electrical effect caused by fan commutation events. The sense/driver circuit processes the sense input signal to generate a sense output signal indicative of fan operation. The sense/driver circuit includes an integrated circuit. The integrated circuit includes a sense input pin, a ground return pin, a driver circuit, an integrated filter portion, a filter pin and a level detecting circuit. The capacitance is coupled to the filter pin to provide a filter with the integrated filter portion. The driver circuit includes a control terminal, a first current handling terminal coupled to the sense input pin and a second current handling terminal coupled to provide a ground return pat.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a monolithic fan controller circuit which provides the following features: a special start-up routine for the fan; a fan fault detector; a thermal fault detector; an automatic speed controller; a minimum speed controller; a routine for attempting to clear temporary fan faults; and a controllable drive signal frequency. A start-up control circuit provides an initial high duty-cycle kick to the fan in order to initiate the rotation of the fan. A temperature sensor, which may be external or internal to the monolithic fan controller, supplies a signal which is proportional to measured temperature. This signal is used to control the output pulse width of a pulse-width modulator (PWM) or control the frequency of a pulse frequency modulator (PFM). The PWM or PFM output signal regulates the speed of the brushless (or brush) DC fan motor. In a preferred embodiment, the monolithic fan controller has 8 pins.

Abstract: A method for controlling the operation of a brushless DC fan for cooling heat generating components of a system is provided. The method includes providing a system temperature signal indicative of a system temperature and providing an intelligent shutdown enable signal. The system temperature signal is compared with a shutdown temperature signal if the intelligent shutdown enable signal has a first value. The shutdown temperature signal is representative of a shutdown temperature value. The fan is operated at a generally temperature proportional speed after comparing the system temperature signal with the shutdown temperature signal if the system temperature as indicated by the system temperature signal is greater than the shutdown temperature value as indicated by the shutdown temperature signal.

Abstract: A current driven span voltage source for use in an analog to digital converter includes a zero reference resistor serially connected with a resistor ladder. A first current source selectively passes a part of a first current through the resistor ladder to establish a span (gain) voltage range, and a second current source selectively passes a part of a second current through the zero reference resistor to establish a zero reference voltage for the span voltage range. The controlled current sources increase speed, reduce power and thermal noise, and improve temperature related performance as compared with voltage driven span and reference sources using operational amplifiers.

Abstract: A digital to analog converter (DAC) incorporates a novel subranging voltage output DAC that delivers high multiplying bandwidth while consuming low power and requires small silicon area. The higher order digital input bits (MSBS) select a voltage range (VMSB) from a first resistor divider DAC network. The VMSB is then applied to the input of a small high speed low power differential input single ended output LSB programmable attenuator amplifier. Transistor follower devices effectively buffer the MSB section to the LSB section and increase bandwidth and speed of operation as well as permitting multichannel sharing of a single precision MSB voltage divider network.