Stmicroelectronics S.r.l.

St-ericsson Sa

Antonino Scuderi

Giuseppe Palmisano

Francesco Carrara

Calogero Davide Presti

Angelo Scuderi

Luca La Paglia

Egidio Ragonese

Nunzio Spina

Crocifisso Marco Antonio Renna

Domenico Cristaudo

Ezio Perrone

Carlo Magro

Barbaro Marano

Guiseppe Palmisano

Carmelo Santagati

A galvanic-isolated coupling of circuit portions is accomplished on the basis of a stacked chip configuration. The semiconductor chips thus can be fabricated on the basis of any appropriate process technology, thereby incorporating one or more coupling elements, such as primary or secondary coils of a micro transformer, wherein the final characteristics of the micro transformer are adjusted during the wafer bond process.

Microstructure device comprising a face to face electromagnetic near field coupling between stacked device portions and method of forming the device

An electronic system comprises a resistive sensor structure and an electronic circuit portion whose design is selected such that different resistive sensor structures may be combined within the same electronic circuit. To this end, the resistive sensor structure is used as a voltage/current converter that provides input currents to a current amplifier, which in turn provides an amplified output voltage on the basis of a difference of the input currents. The operating range of the current amplifier is adjusted on the basis of a programmable current source irrespective of the configuration of the resistive sensor structure.

Electronic system comprising a sensor structure and an analog interface connected thereto with sensor independent operating range

A touch sensor includes a substrate having a substrate surface and first electrode sets. Each first electrode set has a plurality of electrodes formed over the substrate surface and arranged in a row along a first direction, the electrodes being transparent and formed of a first material, the first material being electrically conductive and light transmissive. Each first electrode set also has connection elements. Each connection element provides an electrical connection between a pair of adjacent ones of the plurality of electrodes. The connection elements are formed of a second material having a smaller specific electric resistance than the first material. Each of the connection elements comprises a first portion, a second portion and a third portion. The third portion provides an electrical connection between the first portion and the second portion.

Touch sensor and method of forming a touch sensor

A device for detecting the peak value of a signal with crest factor not known a priori includes a pair of peak detectors, each of which includes a rectifier element and a discharge-current generator and generates a respective output signal that is a function of the ratio between a physical dimension of the rectifier element and the intensity of discharge current produced by the generator. The ratio is different for the two detectors, and a combination network combines the output signals of the two peak detectors with one another and produces a combined signal indicating the peak value sought with high accuracy.

Device for detecting the peak value of a signal

A digital amplitude modulator. The digital amplitude modulator is configured to modulate the amplitude of an input carrier signal based on input digital data and generate a corresponding output signal. The digital amplitude modulator includes a first variable gain amplifier for receiving the input carrier signal and generating a corresponding first amplified carrier signal, a second variable gain amplifier for receiving the input digital data and generating corresponding digital amplitude control data and a plurality of selectively activatable amplifier stages. Each amplifier stage receives a replica of the first amplified carrier signal and generates a corresponding second amplified carrier signal when activated. The output signal corresponds to a combination of the second amplified carrier signals generated by the activated amplifier stages.

Radio frequency amplifier with digital amplitude modulation and method for controlling the delivering of power

A circuit matches the load impedance of an electronic device. The circuit comprises an impedance network, a control circuit suitable for varying the impedance of said network and a sensor coupled with said network and said load and suitable for detecting the ratio between the incident and reflected standing waves in transferring power from the electronic device to the load; the sensor is suitable for providing two signals substantially proportional to the incident and reflected amplitude of the waves at the control circuit. The impedance network is a network of variable resistances and the control circuit is suitable for varying the value of the resistances to lower said ratio between the incident and reflected standing waves to a value that ensures the transfer of power from the electronic device to the load.

Circuit for matching the load impedance of an electronic device

A device for comparing the peak value of a periodic voltage signal or a linear combination of periodic voltage signals with a reference voltage includes a reference transconductor element for converting the reference voltage into a reference current, respective transconductor elements for converting each of the periodic voltage signals into respective periodic current signals, a current-comparison node for comparing the respective periodic current signals with the reference current, generating a comparison current as a difference between the sum of the aforesaid periodic current signals and the reference current, a current rectifier supplied with the comparison current, a hold capacitor charged with the output current of the current rectifier, and a discharge-current generator in parallel to the hold capacitor. The voltage across the capacitor indicates of the outcome of the comparison between the peak value of the periodic voltage signal or the linear combination of periodic voltage signals and the reference voltage.

Device for comparing the peak value of at least one voltage signal with a reference voltage

A protection method may prevent a load-mismatch-induced failure in solid-state power amplifiers. In an RF power amplifier, the load voltage standing-wave ratio results in very high voltage peaks at the collector of the final stage and may eventually lead to permanent failure of the power transistor due to avalanche breakdown. The method avoids breakdown by attenuating the input power to the final stage during overvoltage conditions, thus limiting the output collector swing. This is accomplished by a feedback control system, which detects the peak voltage at the output collector node and clamps its value to a given threshold by varying the circuit gain. Indeed, the control loop is unlocked in the nominal condition and it acts when an output mismatching condition is detected. A control circuit also allows a supply-independent collector-clamping threshold to be accurately set.

Protection of output stage transistor of an RF power amplifier

A gain stage control method may include providing a control current signal; generating a regulation current signal connected to the control current signal; transforming the regulation current signal into a biasing current, proportional to the regulation current signal; and biasing the gain stage by using the biasing current. The biasing current may be related to the control current signal by an exponential law.

Gain stage control method and related control circuit

The present invention describes a device for detecting the power of a first signal at a given frequency. The device comprises a first circuit means for detecting the envelope of the first signal and a second circuit means coupled to the first circuit means and suitable for generating a second signal proportional to the average of the envelope detected. The second signal is proportional to the square root of the average power of the first signal.

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Misterbianco, Italy

Antonino Scuderi