Texas Instruments Corporation

Texas Instruments Incorporated Deutschland, Gmbh

Mark Allen Hamlett

Claude Andrew Sharpe

Dwaine S Hurta

Jose Antonio Vieira Formenti

Vishnu Ravinuthula

Simon Bevan Churchill

Guenther Froschermeier

Eric Rudeen

A voltage protection circuit, comprising a first metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) having a gate terminal coupled to a first node, a source terminal coupled to a second node, and a drain terminal coupled to a third node, a second MOSFET having a gate terminal coupled to the first node, a source terminal coupled to the second node, and a drain terminal coupled to a fourth node, a first current mirror coupled to the third node and configured to couple to a fifth node, a sixth node, and a regulator supply, and a second current mirror coupled to the fourth node, and configured to couple to the fifth node, the sixth node, and a ground node.

Voltage protection circuit

An apparatus for selectively coupling a system with a first power supply or a second power supply includes: (a) a first switch for effecting a first coupling of the system with the first power supply; (b) a second switch for effecting a second coupling of the system with the second power supply; (c) a first switch control unit coupled for controlling the first switch; (d) a second switch control unit coupled for controlling the second switch; (e) a connection director unit coupled with the first and second switch control units for providing control signals to effect the first and second coupling; at least one of the first and second coupling being effected as an initial coupling establishing a generally time-dependent increasing current between the system and one power supply and a continuing coupling establishing a substantially constant operating current between the system and the one power supply.

Apparatus and method for selectively coupling system with a first power supply or a second power supply

A system and method which conserves energy in the operation of a transponder or tag (14) by providing that the transponder (14) be enabled or awakened in multiple stages. A threshold detector (62) is provided which measures the power level of received RF energy. If the RF energy received by the detector (62) exceeds a pre-determined level, the transponder (14) then employs a modulation detector (64) to ascertain whether it has been awakened by a valid interrogation signal from an interrogator (12) or whether the RF energy received was merely a spurious burst of RF energy from some other source. If a pre-determined modulation is detected by the modulation detector (64), the transponder (14) is then fully activated to its normal operational state.

Multi-stage transponder wake-up, method and structure

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Richardson, TX, United States of America

Mark Allen Hamlett