The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 27, 2018
Filed:
Dec. 21, 2017
Newport Corporation, Irvine, CA (US);
Adrian Nastase, Huntington Beach, CA (US);
Jesus Delvalle, Irvine, CA (US);
Newport Corporation, Irvine, CA (US);
Abstract
System and method for detecting the presence and type of capacitive load that may be coupled to a power driver. The system includes a detection circuit to determine the presence and type of load based on a measured characteristic of the load in response to a drive voltage. The characteristic may be the load capacitance as measured by the current flow between the driver and load. The circuit may include a differential amplifier to generate a current-related voltage, comparators to generate pulses when the voltage exceeds respective thresholds, registers to output logic levels in response to the comparators, and a microcontroller to make the determination based on the logic levels. Alternatively, the circuit includes a differential amplifier to generate a current-related voltage, a rectifier to rectify the voltage, a peak and hold circuit to hold the peak voltage, an ADC to digitize the peak voltage, and a microcontroller to make its determination based on the digitized voltage.