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:
Mar. 08, 2011
Filed:
Oct. 26, 2007
Joseph Kurth Reynolds, Mountain View, CA (US);
Kirk Hargreaves, Mountain View, CA (US);
David Ely, Cambridge, GB;
Paul Routley, Cambridge, GB;
Julian Haines, Dublin, IE;
Joseph Kurth Reynolds, Mountain View, CA (US);
Kirk Hargreaves, Mountain View, CA (US);
David Ely, Cambridge, GB;
Paul Routley, Cambridge, GB;
Julian Haines, Dublin, IE;
Synaptics Incorporated, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods, systems and devices are described for detecting a measurable capacitance using charge transfer techniques that can be implemented with many standard microcontrollers, and can share components to reduce device complexity and improve performance. In the various implementations of this embodiment, the passive network used to accumulate charge can be shared between multiple measurable capacitances. Likewise, in various implementations a voltage conditioning circuit configured to provide a variable reference voltage can be shared between multiple measurable capacitances. Finally, in various implementations a guarding electrode configured to guard the measurable capacitances can be shared between multiple measurable capacitances. In each of these cases, sharing components can reduce device complexity and improve performance.