Abstract:
An integrated telephone interface circuit for driving a telephone line includes a line current sensor and a phase converter, both associated with an output stage connected to the telephone line. The circuit is equipped with a protection device against the generation of spurious signals including a comparator connected between the converter and the output stage, a control and monitoring circuit linked operatively to an output of the comparator, and a plurality of switches associated with the input side of the converter, as well as with the current sensor and the output stage. The switches are linked operatively to respective outputs of the control and monitoring circuit to reverse polarity of the line supply upon a predetermined threshold value for the comparator being exceeded.
Abstract:
A circuit for limiting the output voltage from a power transistor connected in series with a resonant load between a voltage supply and a voltage reference, ground, is disclosed. The circuit includes a semiconductor junction element, in particular a diode of the SCR type, having an anode terminal connected to the voltage supply, a cathode terminal connected to a common circuit node between the power transistor and the resonant load, and a control terminal connected to a reference voltage of predetermined value. The reference voltage can be constructed by using a resistor connected in series with a diode across the voltage supply. The SCR diode is constructed using the parasitic PNP-NPN transistors which exist in the structure of the power transistor.
Abstract:
Device for limiting the working voltage for mechanical switches in telephony includes terminals for connection to a telephone line, a connection and power supply branch for a control circuit extending from a first terminal, the branch having a first switch, the cathode terminal of a first Zener diode and the source terminal of a first MOSFET transistor being connected to the output terminal of the first switch, the gate terminal of the first MOSFET transistor being connected, through the anode terminal of the Zener diode, to the first terminal. The current absorbed by the device may be adjusted.
Abstract:
A circuit device for measuring the threshold voltage distribution among electrically programmable, non-volatile memory cells, which device comprises a differential amplifier having a first input connected to a first circuit leg including at least one memory cell and a second input connected to a second or reference circuit leg, and circuit means effective to cause an unbalance in the values of the currents flowing in the reference leg. The device is connected between a first supply voltage reference and a second voltage reference, and said circuit means comprise a generator of a varying current as a function of the supply voltage which is associated with the reference leg.
Abstract:
A dam is provided on a surface of a circuit board to which an integrated circuit device is to be mounted. The dam defines a region between the integrated circuit package and the circuit board, and a material is injected into this region after the device has been mounted on the circuit board. This material preferably is a good thermal conductor, assisting in the removal of heat from the device. The injected material also preferably acts as an adhesive, more firmly bonding the device the circuit board.
Abstract:
A filter architecture particularly for video applications, includes a filter section for separating high pass and low pass components from a video input signal conveying a video image, a brilliance estimating section for determining a mean brilliance value for each of a plurality of sections into which the video image is divided, first and second image characteristic adjusting sections for modifying the high pass and low pass components in response to the mean brilliance values, and a summing section for combining the modified high pass and low pass components to generate a filtered video signal. The first and second image characteristic adjusting sections operate using Fuzzy Logic which enables the filter architecture to effectively adjust contrast and brightness in the video image over a wide range of image brightness values.
Abstract:
An interactive method for monitoring road traffic consisting of detecting, using a short-range receiver installed on a vehicle, the presence of preceding vehicles in the same running direction and their dynamic conditions, as transmitted by the preceding vehicles, in the form of binary coded periodic message at nonoverlapped time windows for each vehicle. The method further consists of transmitting, to the following vehicles using a short-range transmitter installed on the vehicle, a binary coded message indicating the presence of the vehicle and, optionally, dynamic conditions of the preceding vehicles, at time windows non-overlapping the transmission time windows of the preceding vehicles.
Abstract:
The breakdown voltage of a VDMOS transistor is markedly increased without depressing other electrical characteristics of the device by tying the potential of a field-isolation diffusion, formed under the edge portion of a strip of field oxide separating a matrix of source cells from a drain diffusion, to the source potential of the transistor. This may be achieved by extending a body region of a peripheral source cell every given number of peripheral cells facing the strip of field-isolation structure until it intersects said field-isolation diffusion. By so connecting one peripheral source cell every given number of cells, the actual decrement of the overall channel width of the integrated transistor is negligible, thus leaving unaltered the electrical characteristics of the power transistor.
Abstract:
An analog multiplier circuit includes three transconductance stages. One of the transconductance stages, receiving a first differential voltage, conducts a differential current responsive to the first differential voltage from the other two transconductance stages. The differential current changes the transconductance in the other two transconductance stages, which are cross-coupled with one another. The second differential input voltage is presented to the other two transconductance stages in parallel, resulting in an output differential current or voltage based on the product of the first and second differential input voltages. Each of the transconductance stages is implemented in BiCMOS, and each includes two differential legs, each having a MOS transistor receiving an input signal and a cascode bipolar transistor. Each transconductance stage also includes a reference leg which develops the drain-source voltage for the MOS transistors; the first transconductance stage differentially varies this drain-source voltage in the other two stages to produce the product.
Abstract:
A protection circuit (1) comprising a first and second supply line at a first and second supply voltage respectively; a reference voltage source; a comparator connected to the first supply line and the source; and a switch controlled by the comparator via a control terminal and located between the second supply line and the output of the circuit. To reduce static consumption of the comparator under normal operating conditions, the circuit comprises enabling control elements connected to the two supply lines and to the comparator for disabling the comparator and turning on the switch when the two supply voltages differ by a value below a predetermined threshold, but are greater than a reference value.