Abstract:
A fault tolerant register employing triple redundant storage of data and continuous voting to protect the data from Single Event Upset, or SEU. The fault tolerant register includes a single master multiplexer, three slave multiplexers connected in parallel to the output of the master multiplexer and three voting circuits positioned in feedback paths of the slave multiplexers. The slave multiplexers provide triple redundant storage for the data and the voting circuits correct any data that might become disrupted. The fault tolerant register of the present invention provides greatly improved SEU tolerance without a large increase in circuit area or without resorting to error correction and its attendant scrubbing process.
Abstract:
An adjunct switch circuit is provided for detecting power to ground leaks in a portion of a chip circuit and for disabling such circuit portion in the event of a leak. The switch circuit of the invention is particularly useful for Wafer Scale Integration, and is conveniently employed in the testing of chip circuits following manufacturing.In a preferred embodiment, the switch circuit includes a power supply, including a voltage source and a ground, a reset line for receiving a reset pulse, a first switch, connected in series with one of the power supply lines to the circuit portion ground and inversely responsive to both the reset pulse and the state of the circuit portion ground following termination of the reset pulse, and a second switch, connected between ground and the circuit portion ground and directly responsive to the reset pulse to leak current from the circuit portion ground to ground when turned on by the reset pulse.
Abstract:
A human presence detection system (50) that employs a frame differencing technique for subtracting out background interference from images generated by the system. The system (50) includes an infrared source (28) that generates a beam of infrared radiation, and an infrared detector (72) that receives infrared radiation reflected from objects in the path of the beam. Face recognition software is employed to determine the presence of a person (16) from the reflected radiation. The infrared source (28) is pulsed on and off and the detector (72) is synchronously shuttered to the pulses so that image frames are generated at different times, where one frame includes reflected radiation and background radiation and another frame includes only background radiation. The frames are subtracted to separate out the background radiation. In one embodiment, the detector (72) includes a pixel array of photodiodes (90) and first and second capacitor storage sites (94, 98) for storing the image frames on a single CMOS chip (70). The storage sites (94, 98) are subtracted in a summation device (102) that is also on the CMOS chip (70). In an alternate embodiment, the frames are stored and subtracted at an off-chip site.
Abstract:
An RF switch formed as a micro electro-mechanical switch (MEMS) which can be configured in an array forming a micro electro-mechanical switch array (MEMSA). The MEMS is formed on a substrate. A pin, pivotally carried by the substrate defines a pivot point. A rigid beam or transmission line is generally centrally disposed on the pin forming a teeter-totter configuration. The use of a rigid beam and the configuration eliminates the torsional and bending forces of the beam which can reduce reliability. The switch is adapted to be monolithically integrated with other monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) for example from HBTs and HEMTs, by separating such MMICs from the switch by way of a suitable polymer layer, such as polyimide, enabling the switch to be monolithically integrated with other circuitry. In order to reduce insertion losses, the beam is formed from all metal, which improves the sensitivity of the switch and also allows the switch to be used in RF switching applications. By forming the beam from all metal, the switch will have lower insertion loss than other switches which use SiO2 or mix metal contacts.
Abstract:
A passive millimeter-wave imaging system configured as an integrated circuit. The imaging system incorporates a lens which focuses radiation from a scene onto a detector in the focal plane of the lens. The detector includes an outer array of ferroelectric elements in which each element includes a top metal film and a ferroelectric layer. Millimeter-wave radiation from the beam causes charge build-up in the ferroelectric layers. The charge build-up is sensed by appropriate amplification and signal processing circuitry associated with the read-out electronics so as to provide a signal indicative of obstacles in the scene to a video system. The ferroelectric layer can also be used as an antenna for each pixel element.
Abstract:
A tire and suspension monitoring and warning system consisting of a set of multi-function sensors that monitor and warn of a failure mode. The system monitors and warns for tire imbalance, tire tread wear, and shock absorbers for a tire attached to a vehicle. The monitoring and warning system includes one axial, radial, and lateral acceleration measurement of the wheel to provide acceleration signal sample power. For tire imbalance, signal sample power in the second harmonic of the tire rotational frequency is compared to that of the first harmonic. For tire tread wear, average signal sample power within a second frequency range is compared to a previously stored baseline value. For shock absorber performance, a sum of all frequency components in a second predetermined frequency range is compared to a baseline value.
Abstract:
An imaging system (50) for providing vehicle safety features that employs face recognition software to identify and track a person. The system (50) employs infrared emitters (30) that emit an infrared signal along a predetermined field-of-view, and an infrared sensor (34), such as a CMOS sensor used as a video signal array, that receives reflected infrared illumination from objects in the field-of-view. A processor (52) including the face recognition software, is employed to detect human faces to identify and track the person. Once a face is detected, it can be compared to a data base to identify the person. Various applications for the imaging system (50) for providing vehicle safety features include identifying the driver or passenger for personalizing the vehicle's airbags, providing pre-crash collision avoidance, providing blind spot detection, providing vehicle crash recording, and providing a warning signal if the driver appears drowsy.
Abstract:
This invention discloses a multiple quantum well infrared detector comprising a series of alternating layers of blocking layers and composite well layers. Each composite well layer is comprised of alternating layers of GaAs and AlGaAs forming a tightly coupled well group. The tightly coupled well group allows more allowed states for an electron released from the valence bands of the gallium arsenide semiconductor material. Consequently, there is a wider band width of detectable infrared radiation by the composite wall structure over the single well of the prior art.
Abstract:
A fast Fourier transform circuit formed on a single chip, including a fast multiplier-accumulator circuit which, in the preferred embodiment, employs a modified form of Booth's algorithm, an adder circuit, a read-only memory for storing FFT twiddle factors, and a random access memory for holding a set of input complex quantities and for receiving intermediate and final results in an in-place FFT operation. In the preferred embodiment, the FFT twiddle factors are stored in Booth's code for greater speed of operation. Control and timing circuitry on the same chip generates control signals and address codes in order to perform a sequence of butterfly computations by repeated use of the multiplier-accumulator and adder circuits, to generate FFT coefficients in the random access memory.
Abstract:
A tire and suspension monitoring and warning system consisting of a set of multi-function sensors that monitor and warn of a failure mode. The system monitors and warns for tire imbalance, tire tread wear, and shock absorbers for a tire attached to a vehicle. The monitoring and warning system includes one axial, radial, and lateral acceleration measurement of the wheel to provide acceleration signal sample power. For tire imbalance, signal sample power in the second harmonic of the tire rotational frequency is compared to that of the first harmonic. For tire tread wear, average signal sample power within a second frequency range is compared to a previously stored baseline value. For shock absorber performance, a sum of all frequency components in a second predetermined frequency range is compared to a baseline value.