Atmel Corporation

Fredrik Larsen

Frode Milch Pedersen

Tor Erik Leistad

Trond Jarle Pedersen

Steinar Myren

Ronan Barzic

Jan Rune Herheim

Oyvind Skutlaberg

An apparatus comprises a comparator that includes a first input, a second input and an output. The comparator is configured for measuring a difference in voltage between a source coupled to the first input and another source coupled to the second input, and providing information associated with the measured difference at the output. The apparatus also comprises a controllable current source coupled to the first input of the comparator and configured for supplying or drawing current. The apparatus also comprises a digital logic circuit that is configured for controlling an amount of current supplied or drawn by the controllable current source. The apparatus is configured for measuring a charge associated with an external source that is coupled to the first input of the comparator.

Charge measurement

An apparatus of one embodiment includes a sensor and a controller. The sensor has first and second electrodes separated by an insulator. The controller includes measurement circuitry, a processor, and a memory comprising logic. The logic is operable to disconnect the second electrode from the measurement circuitry, induce a current on the second electrode by applying voltage to the first electrode, apply charge to the second electrode, connect the second electrode to the measurement circuitry after applying the charge to the second electrode, and determine a capacitance value associated with the second electrode.

Charge compensation during touch sensing

A delay line of individually selectable delay elements can operate as an oscillator in an open loop mode to track process variation or drive a clock signal that varies with temperatures and voltages in the system. The delay line oscillator can also operate in a closed loop mode to match a frequency given by a tuner ratio and a reference clock. The delay line can also be used for measuring clock jitter or duty cycle.

Frequency locking oscillator

The disclosed implementations provide for power reduction in microcontrollers by reactivating a clock in the microcontroller for one or more peripheral modules in response to an internal or external trigger event, thus allowing the one or more peripheral modules to respond to events while operating in a low-power sleep mode. In some implementations, one or more peripheral modules in a microcontroller provide a clock request signal to a clock generator in the microcontroller. In response to the clock request signal, the clock generator reactivates one or more oscillator sources. The clock generator resumes clock generation only for the one or more requesting peripheral modules, keeping power consumption in the microcontroller to a minimum and not disturbing other modules in the microcontroller.

Microcontroller with clock generator for supplying activated clock signal to requesting module to conserve power

A low-cost charge injection mechanism may enable oversampling to be used on low frequency signals by injecting dither noise into the ADC input. The dither noise can reduce the quantization noise allowing even direct current (DC) signals to be oversampled correctly. A low-cost charge injection mechanism can also be used to improve the ENOB by characterizing the ADC and digitally correcting the converted signal for non-linearity errors such as INL. Reducing INL errors may also allow a higher degree of oversampling to be used to further improve the ENOB.

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Trondheim, Norway

Fredrik Larsen