Cypress Semiconductor Corporation

Parade Technologies, Ltd.

Other

Andriy Maharyta

Viktor Kremin

Oleksandr Karpin

Roman Ogirko

Hans Klein

Igor Kolych

Mykhaylo Krekhovetskyy

Volodymyr Bihday

Ihor Musijchuk

Anton Konovalov

Igor Kravets

Vasyl Mandziy

Oleksandr Pirogov

David Gordon Wright

Oleksandr Hoshtanar

Andriy Yarosh

Hassane El-Khoury

Roman Sharamaga

Andriy Ryshtun

Haneef D Mohammed

Carl Liepold

Yuriy Boychuk

Edward L Grivna

Dana Jon Olson

Steve Kolokowsky

Kaveh Hosseini

Volodymyr Hutnyk

Milton Ribeiro

Robert Michael Birch

Darrin Vallis

Oleg Kapshii

Timothy John Williams

Patrick N Prendergast

Paul M Walsh

Jan-Willem Van De Waerdt

Jonathan R Peterson

Ruslan Omelchuk

Rajiv Singh

Andrew C Page

Michael Patrick Hills

Vadym Grygorenko

Mark Healy

Oleksiy Savitskyy

Pavlo Saldak

Yaroslav Berko

Marian Muliarchyk

An integrated circuit includes a capacitive sensing circuit to receive signal values associated with a proximity distance to an object. A pair of low pass filters (LPFs) are coupled in parallel to the capacitive sensing circuit and include a first LPF configured with a low filtering rate and a second LPF configured with high filtering rate that is higher than that of the low filtering rate. Control logic is coupled to the pair of LPFs and estimates the proximity distance based on one or more filtered signal values received from the pair of LPFs. The logic causes the second LPF to filter the signal values while the proximity distance remains unchanged. The logic detects a change in the proximity distance beyond a threshold value. The logic causes the first LPF to filter a subsequent signal value received from the capacitive sensing circuit based on detecting the change.

Precise proximity object detection for capacitive sensing

A child detection device for a child safety seat for an automobile according to an example includes a plurality of sensors to be positioned on the child safety seat, wherein the plurality of sensors includes at least one capacitive sensor to generate analog capacitive signals. The child detection device includes a conversion circuit to convert the analog capacitive signals to digital capacitive values. The child detection devices includes a controller to identify movement of an object based on the digital capacitive values, and determine whether a child is positioned in the child safety seat based on the digital capacitive values and the identified movement.

Child detection device for a child safety seat

A device can include analog circuits formed with a substrate, including a comparator, analog switches, and a balance current circuit. A sensor current and balance current can be applied at an input of the comparator. The sensor current, balance current or both can be modulated with a switch control signal. Digital circuits can include switch control logic that generates the switch control signal in response to an output of the comparator and a modulation clock signal. Digital signal processing circuits can generate a multi-bit digital value from a bit stream output by the comparator circuit. The multi-bit digital value can be an analog-to-digital conversion of the sensor current. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.

Current-mode analog-to-digital converter systems, devices and methods for multi-sensing

A method can include in a first phase of a sensing operation, controlling at least a first switch to energize a sensor inductance; in a second phase of the sensing operation that follows the first phase, controlling at least a second switch to couple the sensor inductance to a first modulator capacitance to induce a first fly-back current from the sensor inductance, the first fly-back current generating a first modulator voltage at the first modulator capacitance, and in response to the first modulator voltage, controlling at least a third switch to generate a balance current that flows in an opposite direction to the fly-back current at the first modulator node. The first and second phases can be repeated to generate a first modulator voltage at the first modulator capacitance. the modulator voltage can be converted into a digital value representing the sensor inductance. Related devices and systems are also disclosed.

Inductive sensing methods, devices and systems

A processing device scans a capacitive sense array to determine a characteristic of a noise signal. A processing device further detects a location of a touch proximate to the capacitive sense array by a passive touch object using a first mode of capacitance touch detection. The first mode of capacitive touch detection uses a capacitive coupling of the noise signal to the capacitive sense array through the passive touch object to detect the touch.

Passive touch detection for capacitive sense array

Apparatuses and methods of capacitance-to-digital code conversion are described. One apparatus includes a bridge circuit and a modulator front-end circuit. The bridge circuit includes a first terminal to couple to a reference cell and a second terminal to couple to a sensor cell. The modulator front-end circuit includes a comparator coupled to the bridge circuit, a first modulation capacitor coupled to a first input of the comparator, and a second modulation capacitor coupled to a second input of the comparator. The modulator front-end circuit provides a digital bitstream. A duty cycle of the digital bitstream is representative of a ratio between a capacitance of the sensor cell and a reference capacitance of the reference cell.

Ratio-metric multi-sensing convertor

A hydrometer device according to an example includes a floating waterproof device container, and a liquid level sensor positioned in the device container to sense an immersion level of the device container when the device container is floating in a container of liquid. The hydrometer device further includes a conversion circuit positioned in the device container to convert the sensed immersion level to a digital value, and a controller positioned in the device container to determine a liquid density value for the liquid based on the digital value.

Hydrometer device

Measured signal data, detected by a sensor array of a device, is used to create a generated representation from the measured signal data. The generated representation is compared with a measured representation of the measured signal data to create a correlation coefficient corresponding to a correlation between the generated representation and the measured representation of the measured signal data. A hover event is detected for the device if the correlation coefficient exceeds a first threshold. If the correlation coefficient does not exceed the first threshold, then the measured signal data is determined to not be indicative of a hover event.

Hover detection for touchscreens

A capacitance sensing device includes a transmit (TX) generator for generating a sequence of receive (RX) signals by applying each TX signal pattern in a sequence of TX signal patterns to a set of sensor electrodes. For each TX signal pattern in the sequence of TX signal patterns, and for each subset of three or more contiguous sensor electrodes of the set of sensor electrodes, the TX generator applies to the subset one of a first excitation signal and a second excitation signal. The plurality of subsets includes at least half of the sensor electrodes in the set of sensor electrodes. The capacitance sensing device also includes a sequencer circuit coupled with the TX generator. For each TX signal pattern in the sequence of TX signal patterns, the sequencer circuit determines a next subsequent TX signal pattern in the sequence based on a circular rotation of the TX signal pattern. The capacitance sensing device also includes a processing block coupled with the TX generator. The processing block detects a presence of an object proximate to the set of sensor electrodes based on a measure of correlation between the sequence of RX signals and a predetermined function.

Hover sensing with multi-phase self-capacitance method

Apparatuses and methods of multi-phase scanning of a touch panel are described. One apparatus selects a sequence having a number of one values, negative one values, and zero values. The one values correspond to an in-phase drive signal, the negative one values correspond to an opposite-phase drive signal, and the zero values correspond to a reference signal (e.g., reference voltage or ground). A sum of the sequence is equal to zero. The apparatus applies one of the in-phase drive signal, the opposite-phase drive signal, or the reference signal to each of a first set of electrodes at a first stage according to the sequence. The apparatus rotates the sequence to obtain a rotated sequence and applies one of the signals according to the rotated sequence. The apparatus receives sense signals to detect a presence of an object on the touch panel.

Multi-phase exciting and scanning with zero-sum sequences

Apparatuses and methods of high-distance directional proximity sensors are described. One apparatus includes at least three electrodes in a sensor layer, an electrode in a shield layer, and an insulator located between the layers. A processing device is configured to scan the at least three electrodes over a period of time to obtain a digital signal for each of the at least three electrodes while driving a shield signal on the electrode of the shield layer. The processing device detects a gesture by an object using the digital signals. The processing device measures an amplitude value of the digital signal for each of the at least three electrodes and outputs an indication of the gesture responsive to a ratio of a highest amplitude value and a lowest amplitude value satisfying a first threshold criterion that represents the object being within a proximity detection area above the sensor layer.

High-distance directional proximity sensor

Apparatus and methods of impedance sensing are described. One method includes performing a first digital conversion of an attribute of a sensor electrode and performing a second digital conversion of the attribute of the sensor electrode. The second digital conversion differs by at least one characteristic from the first digital conversion. The method further includes calculating a resistance of the sensor electrode from a first and second digital value of the first and second digital conversions, respectively; and calculating a capacitance of the sensor electrode from the first and second digital value of the first and second digital conversions, respectively.

Impedance sensing methods

A fingerprint sensor-compatible overlay material which uses anisotropic conductive material to enable accurate imaging of a fingerprint through an overlay is disclosed. The anisotropic conductive material has increased conductivity in a direction orthogonal to the fingerprint sensor, increasing the capacitive coupling of the fingerprint to the sensor surface, allowing the fingerprint sensor to accurately image the fingerprint through the overlay. Methods for forming a fingerprint sensor-compatible overlay are also disclosed.

Sensor-compatible overlay

Growing community of inventors

Lviv, Ukraine

Andriy Maharyta