Texas Instruments Corporation

Dean Robert Collins

Lewis T Clairborne

Charles G Roberts

Bill R Norvell

Wayne W Chan

A memory system for analogue data includes a plurality of semiconductor charge device shift registers integrated on a semiconducor substrate. In one embodiment analogue data is serially inputed into a charge-coupled device (CCD) shift register. The serial data is converted to parallel and propagates at a substantially slower speed through a plurality of shift registers. A parallel-to-serial conversion provides a serial readout of the data. The serial-parallel-serial arrangement of the memory significantly reduces the number of transfers required to propagate one bit of data through the memory and provides correspondingly improved outputs. In a different aspect of the invention, a plurality of bits of digital data are transformed into a single analogue signal effecting a reduction in size of the memory for equal storage capability.

Analogue memory

A disk shaped ceramic support has a mounting surface provided as a unitary part of the support with conductors extending generally outward from the mounting surface through the thickness dimension of the support, the outer ends of the conductive leads being connected to a ring of terminal leads. A charge coupled device (CCD) imager chip is secured to the mounting surface to leave a backside illumination surface of the chip unobstructed and electrical interconnections are made from terminal pads on the front surface of the chip to the ends of the conductive leads adjacent the mounting surface. A cover plate attached to the insulating support outwardly of the interconnections encloses the front surface of the chip. In a preferred structure the chip is mounted on an apertured molybdenum disk unitarily attached to the support with the illumination surface of the CCD chip facing the aperture. A peripheral tube flange can be brazed to the periphery of the insulating support and a tubular enclosure vacuum sealed to the tube flange for accommodating a photo-cathode source which faces the illumination surface of the imager chip. In a further embodiment, the front side of the chip is attached directly to a mounting surface provided by the insulating support itself, connections between the terminal pads on the chips and the conductive leads of the support being effected therough apertures in the support located adjacent corners of the chip.

Semiconductor device header suitable for vacuum tube  applications

Semiconductor charge devices are defined to effect a serial-to-parallel conversion of analogue signal information. In one aspect of the invention, a digital signal is extracted from an analogue noise environment by a shift register correlator comprising a bucket-bridge configuration of field-effect transistors in combination with gating field-effect transistors which are effective to weight the amplitude of the data in corresponding bits of the shift register. The gates of the gating transistors are selectively connected to diffused regions of transistors of the bucket-brigade delay line to effect parallel tapped outputs therefrom. The weighted signals from the gating transistors are summed at a common terminal to form the auto-correlated output. In a different aspect of the invention, the analogue delay line is effected by a charge-coupled shift register, parallel taps being obtained from diffused regions under selected electrodes of the shift register ohmically connected to gates of the gating field-effect transistors.

Analogue shift register correlators

There is disclosed a battery powered wrist watch utilizing solid state circuits and a liquid crystal display to eliminate mechanical parts. Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices are used to drive liquid crystal display cells. The liquid crystal cells dissipate only microwatts of power when energized and the CMOS devices require appreciable power only when switching from one state to the other. The combination of the liquid crystal display with the CMOS driving circuitry provides a low power, compact, portable watch.

Wrist watch

Semiconductor charge devices are defined to effect a serial-to-parallel conversion of analogue signal information. In one aspect of the invention, a digital signal is extracted from an analogue noise environment by a shift register correlator comprising a bucket-brigade configuration of field-effect transistors in combination with gating field-effect transistors which are effective to weight the amplitude of the data in corresponding bits of the shift register. The gates of the gating transistors are selectively connected to diffused regions of transistors of the bucket-brigade delay line to effect parallel tapped outputs therefrom. The weighted signals from the gating transistors are summed at a common terminal to form the auto-correlated output. In a different aspect of the invention, the analogue delay line is effected by a charge-coupled shift register, parallel taps being obtained from diffused regions under selected electrodes of the shift register ohmically connected to gates of the gating field-effect transistors.

There is disclosed a battery powered wrist watch utilizing solid state circuits and a liquid crystal display to eliminate mechanical parts. Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices are used to drive liquid crystal display cells. The liquid cells dissipate only microwatts of power when energized and the CMOS devices require appreciable power only when switching from one state to the other. The combination of the liquid crystal display with the CMOS driving circuitry provides a low power, compact, portable watch.

Growing community of inventors

Dallas, TX, United States of America

Dean Robert Collins