Nxp USA, Inc.

Freescale Semiconductor,inc.

Jerome Romain Enjalbert

Jalal Ouaddah

Thierry Dominique Yves Cassagnes

Marianne Maleyran

Joel Cameron Beckwith

Andrew C McNeil

Ludovic Oddoart

Dejan Mijuskovic

David Michael Schlueter

Olivier Tico

Joachim Kruecken

Jun Tang

Philippe Bernard Roland Lance

Emil Cozac

Zakaria Mengad

Olivier Bernal

Lavinia Elena Ciotirca

Helene Catherine Louise Tap

A sensor system includes a transducer for sensing a physical stimulus along at least two orthogonal axes and an excitation circuit. The transducer includes a movable mass configured to react to the physical stimulus and multiple differential electrode pairs of electrodes. Each of the electrode pairs is configured to detect displacement of the movable mass along one of the orthogonal axes. The excitation circuit is connectable to the electrodes in various electrode connection configurations, with different polarity schemes, that enable excitation and sampling of each of the orthogonal axes during every sensing period. For each sensing period, a composite output signal is produced that includes the combined information sensed along each of the orthogonal axes. The individual sense signals for each orthogonal axis may be extracted from the composite output signals.

Inertial sensor sampling with combined sense axes

A system includes a capacitive transducer, an excitation circuit, and a measuring circuit. The excitation circuit is configured to excite the capacitive transducer and the measuring circuit measures an output signal from the capacitive transducer responsive to the excitation voltage. The excitation circuit includes a voltage source for providing a first voltage in response to receipt of a supply voltage, a voltage generator coupled to the voltage source for receiving the first voltage and generating a second voltage that is greater than the supply voltage, and a control circuit coupled to the voltage source and the voltage generator. The control circuit is configured to provide any of a system ground, the first voltage, and the second voltage to first and second terminals of the capacitive transducer, and particularly, being configured to apply the system ground and the second voltage in the form of two consecutive stimuli with opposite polarities.

Excitation circuit, system including excitation circuit and capacitive transducer, and method

A micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) device and a method of testing a MEMS device. The device includes a MEMS sensor having first and second mobile elements, first and second electrodes arranged to deflect the mobile elements by the application of test voltages, and a differential detector circuit. The device also includes an input multiplexer circuit configured selectively to connect each electrode to a test voltage source to apply a plurality of test voltages to deflect the mobile elements during a test mode. The test voltages comprise a set of monotonically increasing test voltages and a set of monotonically decreasing voltages for performing a C(V) sweep to test for stiction. The device further includes an output multiplexer circuit configured selectively to connect the first mobile element and/or the second mobile element to a single one of the inputs of the detector circuit to detect the deflection of the mobile element.

Microelectromechanical systems device and method

A method for testing a multi-axis micro-electro-mechanical system(MEMS) acceleration sensor includes applying a first voltage to a first-axis excitation plate to move a first proof mass in contact with a proof mass stop. A second voltage is applied to a second-axis excitation plate while maintaining the first voltage to the first-axis excitation plate, to move the first proof mass in a direction orthogonal to the first-axis while in contact with the proof mass stop A reference voltage is applied to the first-axis excitation plate and a determination is made whether an output voltage of the MEMS device is higher than a threshold voltage. If the output voltage is higher than the threshold voltage ten stiction is detected and stiction recovery may therefore be preformed.

Stiction detection and recovery in a micro-electro-mechanical system device

A MEMS acceleration device for measurement of the acceleration along three axes. The device includes capacitors, which capacitance changes under the influence of an acceleration acting upon the device. The change of capacitance for acceleration parallel to the substrate are, normally used with distinct capacitors. This device combines capacitors for using the change in capacitance for sensing in two independent and different directions parallel to the substrate thereby reusing the capacitor. Thereby allowing shrinking of the device while maintaining substantially the same sensitivity.

Micro-electro-mechanical acceleration sensor device

A microelectromechanical device comprising a mass, an electromechanical transducer configured to convert, after damping the mass during a first damping period, displacement of the mass in the first and second directions into corresponding first and second electrical signals during corresponding first and second conversion time periods, a derivative unit configured to generate first and second control signals indicative of the velocity of the mass in the first and second direction, and a controller for providing the first and second control signals to respective first and second one or more electrodes of the electromechanical transducer for simultaneously damping the mass in the first and second directions with a first and second damping forces corresponding to the first and second velocity during the damping time period.

Microelectromechanical device and a method of damping a mass thereof

A method for voltage regulation includes reducing a power consumption of a voltage regulator during an IDLE phase, by disabling a feedback loop configured to regulate an internal voltage to a multiple of a reference voltage in response to the voltage regulator receiving a digital signal from a digital circuit. The internal voltage is proportional to an external voltage supplied to the digital circuit. A regulated accuracy of the external voltage is increased during a MEASUREMENT phase by enabling the feedback loop in response to the voltage regulator receiving the digital signal from the digital circuit.

Ultra low power linear voltage regulator

A circuit comprises an amplifier, a first switch arranged between an amplifier input and an amplifier output, a first capacitor, a first resistor, a second switch, a third switch, a first converter coupled to the first amplifier output, a register storing a last digital value, a second converter converting the stored last digital value into a corresponding voltage value, and a control circuit. The control circuit charges the first capacitor to the corresponding voltage value by coupling a second converter output to a second capacitor terminal and switching on the first switch, or by coupling the second converter output to the first capacitor terminal and switching on the third switch; switches on the first switch and the second switch for providing the input voltage signal to the first capacitor; and switches on the third switch for determining a subsequent digital value of the converted output amplifier signal.

Filtered sampling circuit and a method of controlling a filtered sampling circuit

An on-board trimming circuit suitable for trimming an accelerometer provides offset trim and gain trim modules for determining correct trim codes for subsequent programming into the trimming circuit. The correct trim codes may be determined by comparing sensor outputs which have been adjusted by successive trim codes, with a reference voltage in a comparator until the comparator toggles or by using a successive approximation technique. The reference voltage is supplied form a tap of a feedback resistance divider circuit which forms a part of an on-board voltage reference generator which may be used to provide a full scale reference for an analog to digital converter which converts a sensor output voltage into a digital signal. Using these reference voltages significantly lessens the impact of any offsets inherent in the voltage reference generator on the trimming process.

Trimming circuit for a sensor and trimming method

A voltage regulator for digital loads combines a closed loop regulation circuit with an open loop topology. A transistor and a bank of transistors share the same voltage source VDD and gate control current. Each of the bank of transistors is sized to match different current load requirements and one or more may be switched in or out as appropriate when the digital load transitions from one operating mode to another. The regulator has good DC load regulation and unconditional stability regardless of output capacitance.

Voltage regulator, application-specific integrated circuit and method for providing a load with a regulated voltage

A voltage metering module for metering a voltage signal at least one analogue to digital converter (ADC) component arranged to receive at an input thereof a voltage signal and to generate a digital signal representative of the received voltage signal. The at least one ADC component includes at least one sampling network controllable to sample the received voltage signal for conversion to a digital signal representative of the received voltage signal and at least one compensation network operably coupled in parallel with the sampling network and controllable to sample the received voltage signal such that an input current of the compensation network at least partially compensates for a component of an input current of the sampling network.

Method and apparatus for metering a voltage signal

A sample-and-hold circuit is provided. The sample-and-hold circuit includes an input one or more dedicated capacitive elements, one or more parasitic capacitive elements connected to said one or more dedicated capacitive elements, an output, a group of switches, and a control unit. The control unit controls said switches so as to interconnect said input, said one or more dedicated capacitive elements, and said output in a cyclic manner in accordance with a sample-and-hold cycle.

Sample-and-hold circuit and capacitive sensing device that includes the sample-and-hold circuit

A low drop-out voltage regulator, an integrated circuit, a sensor and a method of providing a regulated voltage are provided. The low drop-out voltage regulator comprises a regulated voltage driver for providing the regulated voltage in response to a control voltage, a feedback-loop circuit for generating the control signal such that the regulated voltage driving circuit provides the regulated voltage, and a pull-up circuit for pulling up the regulated voltage to a supply voltage when a difference between the supply voltage and the control voltage is smaller than a predetermined threshold value. In the feedback-loop circuit a first feedback voltage or a second feedback voltage is generated, respectively, on basis of a first ratio and a second ratio between the feedback voltage and the regulated voltage. The second feedback voltage is generated instead of the first feedback voltage when the regulated voltage is pulled-up to the supply voltage.

Low drop-out voltage regulator and a method of providing a regulated voltage

A voltage switching circuitry comprises a switching arrangement with a given number N of switches in series between a first terminal receiving a first voltage and a second terminal receiving a second voltage. The first voltage level is higher than the second voltage level, and N is at least equal to 2. A voltage-by-N divider, having N&#x2212;1 output taps, is arranged to divide the first voltage by N to a scaled down version of the first voltage having a voltage level below voltage max ratings of the switches. The N&#x2212;1 output taps of the divider are arranged to respectively output N&#x2212;1 third voltages having respective levels staged below the first voltage level. N&#x2212;1 max voltage generators generate N&#x2212;1 fourth voltages, respectively equal to the maximum of the second voltage and of each of the N&#x2212;1 third voltages. A switch control unit generates N control signals using the N&#x2212;1 fourth voltages. These N control signals have respective voltage levels staged between the first voltage level and the second voltage level. In addition, each of the N control signals controls one of the switches of the switching arrangement, respectively.

Voltage switching circuitry, integrated device and integrated circuit, and method of voltage switching

A detector for detecting the connection of an accessory including a microphone and/or the state of a switch associated with the microphone for a mobile device, wherein the detector comprises a first flag generator for time multiplexing the detection of a signal above a predetermined threshold for each of two comparators, such that for one time period one comparator output is detected and for a second time period the second comparator output is detected to thereby form a first flag; a second flag generator for determining the connection of microphone to thereby generate a second flag; a lookup table for determining the connection of the accessory and/or the state of the microphone switch from the first and second flags.

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Tournefeuille, France

Jerome Romain Enjalbert