Google Inc.

Level One Communications, Inc.

Intel Corporation

Netlogic Microsystems, Inc

Shahriar Rabii

Don Stark

Jason Rupert Redgrave

Stefanos Sidiropoulos

Albert Meixner

Ofer Shacham

Daniel Finchelstein

Edward Y Chang

William R Mark

Srenik Suresh Mehta

Timothy James Knight

Arnold Robert Feldman

Clemenz Lenard Portmann

Shwetabh Verma

Lynn Bos

Michelle Tomasko

Fabrizio Basso

Masumi Reynders

Donald C Stark

Michael Peter Mack

Cheng-Yi Andrew Lin

Christopher Donald Nilson

Thomas Byunghak Cho

Menno Marringa

Andy Yang

Donald Evan Macnally

Laurence Marguerite Plouvier

Eric S Dukatz

Benjamin Iver Gribstad

An image processor unit is described. The image processor unit includes a plurality of inputs to receive at least one input image. The image processor unit includes a plurality of outputs to provide at least one output image. The image processor unit includes a network coupled to the plurality of inputs and the plurality of outputs. The network is to couple at least one of the inputs to at least one of the outputs. The image processor unit includes an image processor circuit coupled to the network. The network to route an input image that is received at one of the inputs to the image processor circuit. The image processor circuit is to execute image signal processing program code to generate a processed output image from the input image. The network is to route the processed output image to at least one of the outputs.

Configurable and programmable image processor unit

A modulated signal based on a low-precision, fast startup oscillator is provided to a circuit with a high-precision, slow startup oscillator. The frequency of the modulated signal ranges around the characteristic or resonant frequency of the high precision oscillator without using feedback from the high precision oscillator circuit. An implementation can include one or more variable gain circuits that can be adjusted based on an amplitude threshold in relation to the output signal of the high precision oscillator circuit.

Oscillator startup

A method includes forming an integrated circuit device having device circuitry disposed in a device circuitry area on a substrate and a destroyable circuit formed in a destroyable circuitry area on the substrate; testing at least one operational aspect of the device circuitry using the destroyable circuit; and destroying the destroyable circuit subsequent to testing the at least one operational aspect of the device circuitry.

Test then destroy technique for security-focused semiconductor integrated circuits

A circuit with a sampling network may include a pair of capacitors, where each of the capacitors has a first node and a second node; a first pair of switches communicatively coupling corresponding differential input voltage signals to the first node of each of the capacitors; and a second pair of switches communicatively coupling the second node of each of the capacitors to a common mode voltage source. Corresponding differential output voltage signals at the second node of each of the capacitors may be communicatively coupled using a differential switch. The second pair of switches may be coupled in parallel with the differential switch. A clock signal of the differential switch may be de-asserted prior to de-asserting corresponding clock signals for each of the second pair of switches.

Sampling network

A method and device for testing a digital-to-analog converter is provided. The method may include configuring a decoder to address an individual unit cell of a plurality of unit cells of a digital-to-analog converter. The configured decoder may select a particular unit cell of the plurality of unit cells for testing. The selected unit cell may have digital and analog circuitry. A bias current of the selected unit cell may be increased. The increased bias current of the selected unit cell may be greater during the testing than during normal operation. A test logic signal may be applied to the selected unit cell. In response to the test logic signal, an output signal may be output from the selected unit cell logic circuitry of the digital-to-analog converter. A device may include logic circuitry configured to select an individual unit cell for testing and a current generating circuitry.

Fast test of digital-to-analog converters

A method and system to drive large off-chip loads, such as, for example, laser diodes, wherein the system includes an integrated circuit coupled to an external differential diode load. Alternatively, the external diode load may be driven single-ended. The integrated circuit includes a data buffer device and a clock buffer device. The integrated circuit also includes a multiplexer device coupled to the clock buffer device configured to multiplex a data input signal and a clock input signal received at respective inputs of the integrated circuit. If the external diode is single-ended, the data input signal is transmitted to the data buffer device, which is then used solely to drive the diode load. If the diode load is differential, the data buffer device receives the data input signal. At the same time, the multiplexer device receives both the data input signal and the clock input signal and selects the data signal to drive the clock buffer device. For a diode load being driven differentially, the outputs of the two buffer devices are merged together externally through the use of a power-combining network, which includes external or off-chip transmission lines, which carry a respective output signal for the data buffer device and the clock buffer device.

Systems, methods, and circuits for driving large off-chip loads

Methods and circuits for driving large off-chip loads

A single-chip CMOS direct conversion transceiver includes an RF circuit, a transmitter having a synthesizer, a receiver having a baseband filter, and a demodulator. The synthesizer is coupled to the RF circuit. The baseband filter is coupled to the RF circuit and the synthesizer. The demodulator is coupled to the baseband filter. The RF circuit, the synthesizer, the baseband filter, and the demodulator are arranged and configured in CMOS devices and provide a complete interface between an antenna and a voiceband codec.

Single-chip CMOS direct-conversion transceiver

An AGC window detector that senses the sum of an in-phase (I) and a quadrature (Q) peak-to-peak signal swing and compares the signal to a reference voltage for producing a desired gain. The primary design issues of the detector is to achieve a very low voltage offset and a low power dissipation. The detector is part of the AGC circuits in the I/Q path of a wireless receiver. The signals I , I , Q and Q are the positive and negative peak values of the in-phase and the quadrature waveforms, respectively. They are generated by a peak detector. Thus the differential in-phase and the differential quadrature amplitudes are I &minus;I and Q &minus;Q , respectively. A resulting differential in-phase signal is added to a resulting differential quadrature signal by the detector and compared to the reference voltage to determine if the resulting signal is greater than a maximum reference voltage, less than a minimum reference voltage or within the maximum and minimum voltages. A reference voltage generator creates the desired voltages within a desired tolerance.

AGC window detector

An offset window detector that senses the sum of two signals and compares the result to a reference voltage for attenuating an offset voltage and producing a desired gain. The primary design issues of the detector is to achieve a very low voltage offset and a low power dissipation. The detector is part of the offset circuits in the I/Q path of a wireless receiver. The maximum input signal and the minimum input signal are the positive and negative peak values of the in-phase or the quadrature signal paths. They are generated by a peak detector. The offset signal can be estimated by the addition of the maximum input signal with the minimum input signal. This resulting offset signal is compared to the reference voltage to determine if the resulting signal is greater than a maximum reference voltage, less than a minimum reference voltage or within the maximum and minimum voltages. A reference voltage generator creates the desired voltages within a desired tolerance.

Offset window detector

An offset integrator and method are provided to induce integrator leakage while simultaneously latching and canceling its own offset. The method includes combining a first and second input signals with a part of the output signal of a different polarity to produce a charge signal. An accumulation of the charge signal on a plurality of storage components is used to reduce the offset component of the output signal and simultaneously inducing an integrator leak. A positive and negative components of the input signals are combined with a negative and positive offset components of the part of the output signal, respectively. The method liner includes modifying a positive and negative components of an in-phase and a quadrature signal. A reset signal may be provided to erase a plurality of memory locations. A gating scheme may be used to provide a predetermined signal to produce a two-phase, non-overlapping signal. The two-phase non-overlapping signal also produces a predetermined delayed two-phase, non-overlapping signal. The gating scheme provides proper timing signals without the use of complementary clock phases.

Offset cancelled integrator

An FM demodulator circuit with reduced sensitivity to noise and performance nearly identical to theoretical predictions. The FM demodulator is a time sampled detector for binary shift key (BFSK) modulated signals. Its inputs are an in-phase and a quadrature outputs of a receiver, which have been oversampled by a predetermined factor with respect to the data rate. The demodulator circuit differentiates the in-phase and the quadrature input signal by computing the difference between the current signal value and the signal value delayed by one clock period. The differentiated values of the in-phase and the quadrature signals may be changed based on the sign of the quadrature and the in-phase signals respectively to produce modified values of the differentiated in-phase and quadrature signals. Processing of the modified differentiated in-phase and quadrature values to produce an output wherein the sensitivity to noise is reduced by discarding the smaller of the modified differentiated in-phase or quadrature signal. The resulting output signal is filtered and passed through a comparator to produce a digital waveform.

Reduced noise sensitivity, high performance FM demodulator circuit and method

A peak detector that compares an input signal to a first reference voltage to produce a maximum sample signal, and compares the input signal to a second reference voltage to produce a minimum sample signal, wherein the maximum and minimum sample signals produce a sampling of the current input signal thereto to produce a maximum output signal and a minimum output signal, respectively. The detector compares the previously retrieved input signal value with a current input signal value. The current input signal is used as the maximum output signal if it is greater than a previous maximum output signal and providing the current input signal as the minimum output signal if it is less than a previous minimum output signal. The output provides signal level and offset signal information which, when gated with a predetermined clock signal, produces nonoverlapping phased output signals.

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Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Shahriar Rabii