Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC

Pavel Hartl

Marek Hustava

Tomas Suchy

Petr Kamenicky

Miroslav Stepan

Lukas Vykydal

A sensor device coupled to a communication interface bus, the sensor device includes: a current source having a first terminal operable to receive a supply current, a second terminal operable to provide a supply current, and a control terminal, wherein an operating voltage is supplied by a current through the current source; a voltage clamp having a first terminal coupled to the second terminal of the current source, a second terminal coupled to a power supply terminal, and an output terminal operable to provide a current sense signal; and a control circuit having an input terminal coupled to the output terminal of the voltage clamp and an output terminal coupled to the control terminal of the current source operable to provide an adjustment signal responsive to the current sense signal, wherein the current source is configured to adjust the current through the current source responsive to the adjustment signal.

Adjustable low current in a sensor network

A sensor device coupled to a communication interface bus, the sensor device enters a low power mode in which some operations of the sensor device are suspended when the sensor device receives insufficient power over the bus, thereby significantly reducing the likelihood that digital components of the sensor device will need to be reset due to an under-voltage condition.

Managing power disruptions in a sensor network

A semi-differential signaling technique as well as bus devices and communication systems that exploit this technique to enhance the performance of the DSI3 bus. In one embodiment, there is provided a DSI3 master device that can be coupled to a DSI3 slave device via a bus having at least a power supply conductor, a power return conductor, and a signal conductor. The master device includes: a power supply node and a power return node that respectively connect to the power supply conductor and the power return conductor to supply power to the slave device; a signal node that connects to the signal conductor; and a driver that drives the signal node relative to a reference voltage midway between voltages of the power supply node and the power return node.

Semi-differential signaling for DSI3 bus enhancement

Disclosed DSI3 slave devices may enhance the data rate of the DSI3 bus using modified nibble encoding, pulse shaping, spectral shaping, and/or message preambles to provide chip time and level tracking. In one embodiment, there is provided a communications method that includes: converting a binary data stream into a ternary unipolar non-return-to-zero level channel signal; and driving the channel signal as an electrical current on a signal conductor. The converting uses an encoder that maps binary nibbles to a set of ternary triplets, each triplet in the set having an average level between 2/3 and 4/3 inclusive, and each triplet including at least one internal transition between levels.

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Brno, Czechia

Pavel Hartl