Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices – circuits – and – Specific signal discriminating without subsequent control – By amplitude
Patent
1997-02-26
1998-08-11
Tran, Toan
Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices, circuits, and
Specific signal discriminating without subsequent control
By amplitude
327514, 327307, H03K 5153, H01L 3100
Patent
active
057932301
ABSTRACT:
A sensor readout detector circuit is disclosed that is capable of detecting sensor signals down to a few nanoamperes or less in a high (microampere) background noise level. The circuit operates at a very low standby power level and is triggerable by a sensor event signal that is above a predetermined threshold level. A plurality of sensor readout detector circuits can be formed on a substrate as an integrated circuit (IC). These circuits can operate to process data from an array of sensors in parallel, with only data from active sensors being processed for digitization and analysis. This allows the IC to operate at a low power level with a high data throughput for the active sensors. The circuit may be used with many different types of sensors, including photodetectors, capacitance sensors, chemically-sensitive sensors or combinations thereof to provide a capability for recording transient events or for recording data for a predetermined period of time following an event trigger. The sensor readout detector circuit has applications for portable or satellite-based sensor systems.
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Chu Dahlon D.
Thelen, Jr. Donald C.
Sandia Corporation
Tran Toan
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