Texas Instruments Corporation

Other

Tito Gelsomini

Andrew Marshall

Harvey Davis

Giulio Giuseppe Marotta

Sebastiano D'Arrigo

Kemal Tamer San

Theodore Warren Houston

Xiaowei Deng

Chee Kiang Yew

Pauline Poyun Wang

Yong Khim Swee

Harvey Edd Davis

In a bi-directional embodiment, an authorization transpondercoupled to the mobile devicetransmits an interrogating message, which includes a UIDassociated with the mobile device, to a nearby wireless key. The wireless key compares this received UIDwith the one or more UID'sstored on the wireless key, and if a match is detected, sends the wireless key's UID or encrypted variant thereof to the interrogating authorization transponder. On receiving the UID from the wireless keyand determining that it matches the authorization transponder UID, a command is sent from authorization transponderto mobile deviceenabling some or all operations of mobile device. In a uni-directional embodiment, one or more UIDare periodically transmitted from a wireless keyto a receiverin authorization receivercoupled to the mobile deviceto be controlled, wherein the UIDfrom the wireless keyis compared to a UIDassociated with the authorization receiver. On receiving the one or more UIDfrom the wireless keyand determining that it matches the authorization receiver UID, a command is sent from authorization receiverto mobile deviceenabling some or all operations of mobile device. Yet another embodiment of the invention controls access to data on a passive mobile device, such as that data stored on the magnetic stripe of a transaction card, by authorizing the card readerto read additional card data when the UID on the card matches a UID of a nearby wireless key. Upon reading a UID from the card, the card reader interrogates a wireless key for its UID, and compares these two UID's. If the two UID's match, authorization for further data transfer from and to the card is given.

Wireless authorization mechanism for mobile devices and data thereon

A semiconductor device has a programming circuit that includes an active device and a programmable electronic component. The programmable electronic component includes a carbon nanotube having a segment with an adjusted diameter. The programmable electronic component has a value that depends upon the adjusted diameter. The programming circuit also includes interconnects that couple the active device to the programmable electronic component. The active device is configured to control a current transmitted to the programmable electronic component.

Programmable circuit with carbon nanotube

A cellular phone is provided with a media scanning capability. Scanner optics, an optional light source and related scanning circuitry is integrated within a cellular phone to enable image or text scanning, facsimile, text-to-speech conversion, and language translation. Position sensors provide position data as the scanner is manually moved, in one or more passes across the scanned media, to enable a bit-mapped image of the strip to be created in a data buffer. Image data from the strips is processed to remove redundant overlap data and skew position errors, to give a bit-mapped final image of the entire scanned item. Image compression is provided to compress the image into standard JPEG format for storage or transmission, or into facsimile format for transmission of the document to any fax machine. Optical character recognition (OCR) is provided to convert image data to text which may be sent as email, locally displayed, stored for later use, or further processed. Further processing of text data includes language translation and text to speech conversion of either the original or translated text. The resulting speech audio can be heard locally or transmitted over the cellular network.

Cellular phone with scanning capability

A narrow scanning aperture, lens, and mirror are added to a digital camera to enable image or text scanning. A motion sensor on the same face as the scanner aperture provides approximate scan speed data as the scanner aperture is pressed against and manually moved across the document being scanned. Many documents are too large to scan in one strip, in which case multiple strips are scanned. As each strip is scanned, a bit-mapped image of the strip is created in a data buffer. Data from each strip is passed to a final image RAM which, on completion of scanning, holds a bit-mapped image of the entire scanned page, in B/W, gray scale, or color. Multi pass strip align then processes the image data to remove redundant data (from strip overlap) and position skew (from errors in position during the scan), resulting in a more accurate bit-mapped image in final image RAM of the entire scanned page or item. Image compression compresses the bit-mapped image to standard JPEG format for storage on the camera memory card. An alternative embodiment stores each scanned strip as a separate image. After strip images are downloaded to the PC, software on the PC 'stitches' these strips back into the full page by eliminating redundant pixels and strip-to-strip misalignment.

Merged camera and scanner

The present invention provides a method for testing an electrical property of one or more functionally separate transistors located within an active region that is common with other transistors, a method for characterizing the leakage current of at least one of a plurality of functionally separate transistors located in a common active region of a circuit, and a test structure for testing one or more functionally separate transistors located within a common active region. The method for testing the electrical property, among other steps, includes providing a pair of functionally separate transistors () located within a common active region, and biasing a terminal () between the pair () relative to gates () of the pair () and terminals () outlying the pair () to obtain a leakage current associated with the pair ().

Method for testing transistors having an active region that is common with other transistors and a testing circuit for accomplishing the same

The present invention provides a method of manufacturing a transistor device, a transistor device, and a method for manufacturing an integrated circuit. In one aspect, the method of manufacturing a transistor device includes providing a gate structure () over a substrate (). An insulating layer () is formed over the gate structure (), and openings () to the substrate () are formed therein, thereby removing a portion of the gate structure (). The openings () are filled with a conductor (), thereby forming an interconnect ().

Transistor design self-aligned to contact

An information write-register embedded in an integrated circuit (IC) is made of a plurality of independently addressable gate-controlled components formed in an isolated p-well nested in a n-well. Gates over the p-well are positioned on an insulator geometrically formed so that it is susceptible locally to electrical conductivity upon applying an overstress voltage pulse, whereby binary information can be permanently encoded into the write-register. The overstress voltage pulse is applied between the gate and the p-well and is created when a write-enable pulse of predetermined polarity and duration is superposed by a p-well pulse of opposite polarity and shorter duration.

Anti-fuse structure and method of writing and reading in integrated circuits

Anti-fuse structure of writing and reading in integrated circuits

A semiconductor device comprising an integrated circuit and an information unit, said unit being electrically separate from said integrated circuit; an integrated antenna electrically connected with said unit; and an electronic data bank integral with said unit. A method of fabricating an information unit into an integrated circuit chip comprising forming an integrated circuit into a semiconductor substrate using a plurality of process steps; concurrently forming an information unit using a selection of said process steps so that said unit becomes integrated into said chip but remains electrically separate from said integrated circuit; concurrently forming an antenna using a selection of said process steps so that said antenna becomes integrated into said chip and electrically connected to said information unit; providing a data bank within said information unit; and encoding electronic data permanently into said data bank.

Integrated circuit wireless tagging

An integrated circuit chip comprising an integrated circuit made in a semiconductor substrate, an information write-register circuit having a plurality of gate-controlled components, such as MOS transistors or capacitors, said write-register being integrated into said circuit yet individually addressable; said components having a gate insulator geometry locally susceptible to electrical conductivity upon applying overstress voltage pulses between said gates and said substrate, whereby information can be permanently encoded into said write-register; and a plurality of level shifter circuits to supply said pulses selectively to said component gates according to stored data and controlled by enable commands, said level shifters being integrated into said circuit.

Chip identifier and method of fabrication

A high density memory module is disclosed comprising a first packaged integrated circuit memory device having therein a first electrically insulating carrier and a first conductive routing pattern integral with said first carrier, and at least a first semiconductor circuit chip; a second packaged integrated circuit memory device electrically connected to said first device, wherein said first and second devices form a module; said second packaged integrated circuit device having therein a second electrically insulating carrier and second conductive routing pattern integral with said second carrier, and at least a second semiconductor circuit chip; and said second conductive routing pattern including means for modifying the architectural organization of said module.

Growing community of inventors

Plano, TX, United States of America

Tito Gelsomini