Abstract: An in-cell touchscreen panel includes columns of transmit electrodes and rows of sensing electrodes, wherein each row of sensing electrodes comprises a first subset of sensing electrodes coupled to control circuitry via a first subset of receiving traces and a second subset of sensing electrodes coupled to the control circuitry via a second subset of receiving traces. To enable multi-touch functionality, the in-cell touchscreen panel operates in a scanning mode where capacitance is measured at each node where the sensing electrodes intersect the transmit electrodes. During the scanning mode, the control circuitry senses the first and second subsets of receiving traces while applying drive signals to pairs of transmit electrodes. After a drive signal has been applied to each of the transmit electrodes, each of the nodes are measured to detect a capacitance. This capacitance is indicative of a user touch on the in-cell touchscreen panel.

Abstract: A digital filter receives a sequence of input signal values. A filtering block performs a filtering operation on sequence of input signal values that is controlled by filter coefficients. A control block also receives the sequence of input signal values. The control block evaluates detected changes over time with respect to the sequence of input signal values and selects values for the filter coefficients based on the detected changes. The detected change over time provides an indication of the whether the sequence of input signal values is changing signal state. If so, the filter coefficients are selected to emphasize signal response time over signal noise filtering for the filtering operation. Otherwise, the filter coefficients are selected to emphasize signal noise filtering over signal response time for the filtering operation.

Abstract: Methods and devices for enhancing mobility of charge carriers. An integrated circuit may include semiconductor devices of two types. The first type of device may include a metallic gate and a channel strained in a first manner. The second type of device may include a metallic gate and a channel strained in a second manner. The gates may include, collectively, three or fewer metallic materials. The gates may share a same metallic material. A method of forming the semiconductor devices on an integrated circuit may include depositing first and second metallic layers in first and second regions of the integrated circuit corresponding to the first and second gates, respectively.

Abstract: A memory includes an array of active memory cells arranged in rows and columns, and at least one dummy memory cell column adjacent the array of active memory cells. A sensing circuit is coupled to the at least one dummy memory cell column to sense at least one variation associated with the at least one dummy memory cell column. An assist circuit is coupled to the array of active memory cells. An assist determination controller is coupled to the sensing circuit to store a look-up table of output assist values corresponding to different variations associated with the at least one dummy memory cell column, to determine an output assist value from the look-up table based upon the at least sensed variation, and to operate the assist circuit based upon the determined output assist value.

Abstract: Accumulators that operate to fully or partially remove noise from a signal, including removing noise inserted into the signal by the accumulator itself. In some embodiments, an accumulator may be operated in a sampling phase and a transfer phase each time the accumulator samples an input signal. In some such embodiments, an op-amp of an accumulation circuit of the accumulator may be auto-zeroed during some or all of the sampling phases of an accumulation period. In some embodiments in which the op-amp is auto-zeroed during some or all of the sampling phases, the accumulation circuit may include a holding capacitor that, during an auto-zeroing process, holds a value output by the op-amp during a prior transfer phase. Including such a holding capacitor in an accumulator may reduce a voltage that the op-amp output rises following the auto-zero process, which may reduce a bandwidth and noise of the accumulation circuit.

Abstract: A single ITO layer design for a touchscreen panel incorporates a matrix of sensor cells formed from a single ITO layer of capacitive sensor pads, sensor bars, force lines and sense lines. Columns of multiplexed force lines are connected to rows of sensor pads to form force trees such that the force line of the end pair of sensor pads has a wide track, with the force lines of each subsequent pair of sensor pads having a reduced track width. Disposed between the columns of force trees, the matrix of sensor cells also includes columns of sensor bars connected to control circuitry via sense lines. The control circuitry applies a signal to the force trees to generate capacitance between rows of sensor pads and adjacent sensor bars. The control circuitry senses changes in the capacitance and resolves the location of a user touch in the matrix of sensor cells.

Abstract: Embodiments provide a method and system of text independent speaker recognition with a complexity comparable to a text dependent version. The scheme exploits the fact that speech is a quasi-stationary signal and simplifies the recognition process based on this theory. The modeling allows the speaker profile to be updated progressively with the new speech sample that is acquired during usage time.

Abstract: Disclosed embodiments are directed to methods, systems, and circuits of generating compact descriptors for transmission over a communications network. A method according to one embodiment includes receiving an uncompressed descriptor, performing zero-thresholding on the uncompressed descriptor to generate a zero-threshold-delimited descriptor, quantizing the zero-threshold-delimited descriptor to generate a quantized descriptor, and coding the quantized descriptor to generate a compact descriptor for transmission over a communications network. The uncompressed and compact descriptors may be 3D descriptors, such as where the uncompressed descriptor is a SHOT descriptor. The operation of coding can be ZeroFlag coding, ExpGolomb coding, or Arithmetic coding, for example.

Abstract: An integrated circuit may include at least one MOS transistor having a sigmoid response. The at least one MOS transistor may include a substrate, a source region, a drain region, a gate region, and insulating spacer regions on either side of the gate region. The substrate may include a first region situated under the gate region between the insulating spacer regions. At least one of the source and drain regions may be separated from the first region of the substrate by a second region of the substrate situated under an insulating spacer region, which may be of a same type of conductivity as the first region of the substrate.

Abstract: A packaging scheme for MEMS device is provided. A method of packaging MEMS device in a semiconductor structure includes forming an insulation fence that surrounds the MEMS device on the semiconductor structure. The method further includes attaching a wafer of dielectric material to the insulation fence. The lid wafer, the insulation fence, and the semiconductor structure enclose the MEMS device.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing an image sensor, including the successive steps of: forming columns of a semiconductor material; forming one or several pixels at a first end of each of the columns; and deforming the structure so that the second ends of each of the columns come closer to each other or draw away from each other to form a surface in the shape of a polyhedral cap.

Abstract: An electronic switch may include transfer transistor having a first conduction terminal for receiving an input signal, a second conduction terminal, and a control terminal. The transfer transistor may enable/disable a transfer of the input signal from the first conduction terminal to the second conduction terminal according to a control signal. The control signal may take a first value and a second value different from the first value, a difference between the first value and the second value defining, in absolute value, an operative value of the control signal. The electronic switch may further comprise a driving circuit for receiving the input signal and the control signal, and for providing a driving signal equal to the sum between the input signal and the operative value of the control signal to the control terminal of the transfer transistor.

Abstract: An embodiment relates to a sensor integrated on a semiconductor substrate and comprising at least one first and second photodiode including at least one first and one second p-n junction made in such a semiconductor substrate as well as at least one first and one second antireflection coating made on top of such a first and second photodiode. At least one antireflection coating of such a first and second photodiode comprises at least one first and one second different antireflection layer to make a double layer antireflection coating suitable for obtaining for the corresponding photodiode a responsivity peak at a predetermined wavelength of an optical signal incident on the sensor. An embodiment also refers to an integration process of such a sensor, as well as to an ambient light sensor made with such a sensor.

Abstract: A hardware coprocessor architecture calculates the Difference-of-Gaussian (DoG) pyramid of an input image and extracts from this the interest points to be used in several image detection algorithms. Advantages of the architecture include the possibility to process the image by stripes, namely by blocks having one dimension coincident with the input image width, in the absence of an input frame buffer and the possibility to avoid RAM memory. The coprocessor is suitable to be tightly coupled with raw image sources like sensors.

Abstract: A method for forming gate, source, and drain contacts on a MOS transistor having an insulated gate including polysilicon covered with a metal gate silicide, this gate being surrounded with at least one spacer made of a first insulating material, the method including the steps of a) covering the structure with a second insulating material and leveling the second insulating material to reach the gate silicide; b) oxidizing the gate so that the gate silicide buries and covers the a silicon oxide; c) selectively removing the second insulating material; and d) covering the structure with a first conductive material and leveling the first conductive material all the way to a lower level at the top of the spacer.

Abstract: An electronic system includes an electronic device of through-hole mounting type comprising an insulating body for embedding at least a chip on which electronic components are integrated, a plurality of conductive leads projecting from the insulating body for said mounting, and a dissipation plate exposed from the insulating body for transferring heat from said electronic component in operation towards the outside of the insulating body. The electronic system includes a heat sink in contact with said dissipation plate for dissipating said heat. The heat sink comprises a first dissipation element, a second dissipation element, and clamping means for clamping the first dissipation element and the second dissipation element together against the insulating body of said electronic device.

Abstract: A system and method transcodes an input video bit stream having a first encoding profile into an output video bit stream having a second encoding profile. The system includes a first module (302) and a second module (306). The system further includes a memory module (304). The first module (302) decodes the input video bit stream for generating pixel data and macroblock specifications. The second module (306) encodes the pixel data and the macroblock specifications for constructing the output video bit stream. The memory module (304) includes a first buffer module and a second buffer module. The first buffer module stores the pixel data and the second buffer module stores the macroblock specifications.

Abstract: A method of forming at least one curved plate having first and second layers, the first layer being formed of a first material and the second layer being formed of a second material, the method including forming one or more blocks of a fusible material on a surface of a substrate; baking the one or more blocks to deform their shape; and depositing the first and second materials over the one or more deformed blocks to form the first and second layers.

Abstract: A camera module has a lens module mounted on a substrate. The image sensor is located in a cavity in the substrate and is connected to the substrate by a bridge member, the infra-red filter. The image sensor is attached to the infra-red filter by a ring of adhesive surrounding the imaging area of the image sensor. The adhesive attaching the image sensor to the infra-red filter comprises spacers. The infra-red filter is attached to the substrate by adhesive. The cavity may extend through the substrate. The image sensor is further connected to the substrate by a sheet member, which may be made of metal. The sheet member is affixed to the bottom of the substrate and covers the hole in the substrate formed by the extension of the cavity through the substrate. A method of assembly of the camera module includes: providing a substrate with a cavity; locating the image sensor in the cavity; connecting the infra-red filter to the image sensor and the substrate; and mounting the lens module on the substrate.

Abstract: An embodiment of an arrangement detects sequences of digitally modulated symbols from multiple sources. The arrangement identifies a suitable set of candidate values for at least one transmitted sequence of symbols and determines for each candidate value a set of sequences of transmitted symbols. The arrangement estimates at least one further set of sequences of transmitted symbols, calculates a metric for each sequence of transmitted symbols, and selects the sequence that maximizes the metric. At the end, a-posteriori bit soft output information for the selected sequence is calculated from the metrics for said sequences. Generally, these calculations are based on the information coming from a channel-state-information matrix and a-priori information on the modulated symbols from a second module, such as a forward error-correction-code (ECC) decoder.