Dialog Semiconductor Gmbh

Dialog Semiconductor (uk) Limited

Silego Technology Inc.

Renesas Design (uk) Limited

Julian Tyrrell

Horst Knoedgen

Gary Hague

Baorong Chen

Stuart Levine

Kevin Jones

David Clewett

Anna Hedley

Kaiwen He

Daisuke Kobayashi

Ambreesh Bhattad

Kevin Yi Cheng Chang

Nebojsa Jelaca

Hidenori Kobayashi

Cang Ji

Vladislav Vasilev

David Eke

Biren Minhas

Tony Coffey

Andrew Repton

David Tyndall

Francesco Paolo

Peter Hayes

Ji Cang

Dave Clewett

Sander Heuvelmans

Described herein is a power converter operable in a pulse frequency modulation (PFM) mode. The power converted may be configured for maintaining a PFM frequency above a predetermined frequency threshold when a load current at an output node of the power converter decreases. The power converter may comprise an inductor. The power converter may be configured to, in a PFM switching cycle: during a positive charge phase of the PFM switching cycle, generate a positive charge across the inductor; and during a negative charge phase of the PFM switching cycle, generate a negative charge across the inductor smaller than or equal to the positive charge, such that a total net charge transferred to the output node during the PFM switching cycle is reduced, so as to maintain the PFM frequency above the predetermined frequency threshold.

Circuits and methods for PFM operation

A conductive liquid path detection circuit for detecting a conductive liquid present in a receptacle connector and/or a mating connector plug is configured for discharging an electron charge from any conductive liquid present on a connector pin in the receptacle connector and/or a mating connector plug. The conductive liquid path detection circuit charges any conductive liquid present on the connector pin with an electron charge. The circuit repeatedly samples and retains the samples of the measurements of a voltage level present at the connector pin. The conductive liquid path detection circuit then analyzes the samples of the measurements to determine a slope of the samples of the measurements of a voltage level over time; and determines when an amplitude of a final measurement of the voltage level is less than a conductive liquid detection threshold level.

Wet contact detection in external accessory connector

An inductive current sensing method for a DC-DC switching converter is described. A sense coil is placed adjacent to a PCB track between the switching converter output and a load powered by the switching converter. A change in a magnetic field is measured around the track, generating a voltage proportional to a change in a load current. The load current is subtracted from an inductor current, when a current needed on the switching converter output is higher than a current in a steady state. In this way, output voltage undershoot or overshoot in the DC-DC switching converter is minimized.

Inductive current sensing for DC-DC converter

A switched-capacitor converter is provided that includes an intermediate voltage generator having a flying capacitor. A sampling and hold circuit samples a top plate voltage for the flying capacitor and samples a bottom plate voltage for the flying capacitor to form an output voltage for the switched-capacitor converter.

Dual-stage inductorless switched-capacitor converter without divisor dependency

Relax oscillation circuits have at least one comparison circuit that is structured with a flipped gate transistor and a normal MOS transistor wherein the two transistors having different threshold voltages. The relaxation oscillators are configured for charging and discharging capacitances between the threshold voltages of the flipped gate transistor and the normal MOS transistor by toggling the state of a latching circuit to control the charging and discharging of the capacitances.

Low power oscillator using flipped-gate MOS

An apparatus and method for controlling an oscillating device is presented. In particular, a controller for adjusting the frequency of a drive signal driving a haptic actuator is presented. The controller contains a calculator adapted to receive a first and a second measurement of the electrical parameter and to calculate a difference between the first measurement and the second measurement. The first measurement is obtained at a first sampling time and the second measurement is obtained at a second sampling time. The controller is adapted to provide a control signal to adjust a frequency of the drive signal based on the difference.

Apparatus and method for controlling an oscillating device

A solid state lighting SSL assembly comprises an SSL device, a capacitor, a directional conducting device and a supply switch. The capacitor is coupled in parallel with the SSL device. The directional conducting device is coupled between an output terminal of the capacitor and a supply terminal which provides a supply voltage for the SSL assembly. The directional conducting device is configured to conduct in a direction from the output terminal to the supply terminal and to isolate in the opposite direction. The supply switch is coupled between the output terminal and ground. In addition, a method for operating a solid state lighting SSL assembly is proposed.

Solid state lighting assembly

A controller for a power converter to convert electrical power at an input voltage into electrical power at an output voltage and a method of operating such controller is presented. The controller for controlling a power converter has an input port to receive a voltage representative of the input voltage; an input voltage measuring unit to sample a measuring voltage and to determine a measurement value that is representative of the input voltage; a switch; and a diode connectable with a storage unit to provide a supply voltage for the controller during operation of the controller. The switch controls the charging of the storage unit from the voltage at the input port.

Power converter controller

Measurement circuits which are configured to measure wide ranges of the input voltage using a sensed input voltage of the driver circuits for solid state lighting (SSL) devices are presented. The measurement circuit comprises a first resistor which is coupled at a first side to the input voltage. The measurement circuit comprises current mirror circuitry coupled at an input to a second side of the first resistor, and which translates an input current at the input of the current mirror circuitry into an output current at an output of the current mirror circuitry, such that the output current is proportional to the input current by a current mirror ratio. The measurement circuit comprises a second resistor coupled to the output of the current mirror circuitry and to provide the sensed input voltage, when the input voltage is coupled to the first side of the first resistor.

LED mains voltage measurement using a current mirror

A digital load side transmission lighting control apparatus has at one least control gear for controlling at least one lighting source. The control gear includes a period timer to establish an inter-transition time period between each transition within each data packet frame. An inter-transition comparator is in communication with the period timer and configured to compare each of the inter-transition periods with valid inter-transition periods between each transition of the bi-phase encoded data for determining if the inter-transition periods represent valid patterns or are an error has occurred. A data extractor is configured to receive valid bi-phase encoded data from the inter-transition comparator for extracting transmitted data from within the data packet frames. A command formatter is configured to receive the extracted frame data from the data extractor for assembling the telegram bit data pattern for transfer for the subsequent processing.

Circuits and methods for decoding amplitude modulated data signals from large amplitude sine wave carrier

A controller for a driver circuit of a solid state lighting (SSL) device is described. The driver circuit comprises a power converter to transfer energy from AC mains voltage to the SSL device. The controller determines a dim level for the SSL device. The controller also determines a synchronization signal by comparing a voltage derived from the input voltage with a pre-determined threshold. The controller determines a sequence of PWM pulses based on the synchronization signal. The controller operates the power converter in a first operation mode for supplying energy to the SSL device at a first energy level within the sequence of PWM pulses, and operates the power converter in a second operation mode in between the PWM pulses. The second energy level is lower than the first energy level and the first energy level and/or a width of the PWM pulses depend on the dim level.

Accurate mains time-base for LED light driver

A communication system with SSL light bulb assemblies comprises a first and a second transceiver. The first transceiver comprises a magnet, and the second transceiver comprises a switched-mode power converter which comprises an inductor element with an inductor core material having a magnetic field dependent permeability. The magnet and the inductor core material of the inductor element are magnetically coupled. The first transceiver is configured to modulate a magnetic field generated by the magnet to generate a modulated downstream magnetic field indicative of downstream data, and the second transceiver is configured to extract the downstream data from a measurement signal from the power converter. The measurement signal is dependent on an inductor value of the inductor element.

Magnetic coil / transformer modulation

A driver circuit using a power converter allows free-wheeling detection and/or provision of supply voltage. A circuit controls a switching state of a power switch. A first port of the switch is coupled to an inductor. The circuit is coupled to a control port of the switch wherein the control port of the switch is different from the first port of the switch. The circuit comprises a unit generating a signal for controlling the switching state of the switch wherein the signal is provided to the control port of the switch. Furthermore, the circuit comprises free-wheeling sensing means to detect an oscillation of a voltage at a measurement port of the switch wherein the measurement port of the switch is different from the first port of the switch and wherein the oscillation of the voltage at the measurement port indicates free-wheeling of the inductor.

VCC charge and free-wheeling detection via source controlled MOS transistor

A modulated current of an LED device provides a capability to dim of the light produced by a string of LED device. The current modulation takes the form of pulse width modulation (PWM) or pulse density modulation (PDM). The modulation is produced on the primary side of a transformer and coupled to the string of LED diodes that are coupled to the secondary side of the transformer. The modulation is varied to change the current of the LED devices and therefore the light intensity of the LED devices.

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Swindon, United Kingdom

Julian Tyrrell