STMicroelectronics

About: STMicroelectronics is a company organization based out in Geneva, Switzerland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Signal & Transistor. The organization has 17172 authors who have published 29543 publications receiving 300766 citations. The organization is also known as: SGS-Thomson & STM.

Method and device for uniforming luminosity and reducing phosphor degradation of a field emission flat display

Abstract: Nonuniformities of luminance characteristics in a field emission display (FED) are compensated pixel by pixel by storing a matrix of correction values, determined by testing, and by applying a corrected drive signal through the relative column drive stages. The individual pixel's correction factor that is applied to the corresponding video signal may be stored in digital or analog form in a nonvolatile memory array. Various embodiments are described including the use of a second updatable RAM array wherein pixel's correction factors are calculated and stored at every power-on to provide an opportunity of trimming-up the luminance of the display for compensating long term decline of luminance due to the phosphors ageing process.

Output buffer current slew rate control integrated circuit

Abstract: An output buffer current slew rate control integrated circuit includes an output buffer having first, MOS-type transistor means for supplying a current to a load impedance. Current generator means generate a constant current and are activated upon switching of an input signal of the output buffer. The current generator means drive a control input of the first transistor means for driving the first transistor means with a driving voltage having a slew rate determined by the constant current.

Electrically programmable memory with several information bits per cell

Abstract: The disclosure concerns electrically programmable memories and, notably, the memories known as EPROMs, EEPROMs, FLASH-EEPROMs. To increase the information storage capacity of a memory, it is proposed to define at least three (instead of two) sections of current coming from a cell to which reading voltages are applied. These sections correspond to n possible programmed states of the cell. Comparators define a piece of information stored, for example, in two-bit form on the outputs S1, S2. However, to ensure safety during the reading despite programming uncertainties, the cell is tested by means of additional comparators and, if the cell current measured for a programming level defined among n levels is too close to the current threshold that defines the programming threshold at this level, an operation for complementary programming of the cell is triggered.

Integrated RF-MEMS switch based on a combination of thermal and electrostatic actuation

Abstract: We have demonstrated the feasibility of a fully integrated RF microswitch. It is based on a combination of thermal actuation and electrostatic latching hold. This method enables to combine the advantages of both actuation modes : the low voltage power supply and high reliability of the thermal actuation, and the low power consumption of the electrostatic latching. An analytical model was developed in order to predict the shape of the beam versus the temperature. An algorithm was also developed in order to evaluate the damping behavior of the switch taking the beam shape deflection into account. A design composed of a 400/spl times/50 /spl mu/m silicon nitride clamped beam was selected. The beam includes titanium nitride heating resistors, and aluminum blocks for bimorph actuation. The RF lines and the contacts are made of a 1 /spl mu/m thick gold layer. The 3 /spl mu/m air gap is fabricated using a polymer sacrificial layer. The driver of the switch, for the thermal actuation and the electrostatic latching, was manufactured in a 0.25 /spl mu/m BiCMOS technology. For each activation, the switch requires a 20 mA current under 2 V during /spl sim/200 /spl mu/s. For the electrostatic hold, the MEMS was designed for less than 10 volts. Due to residual stress in the beam material, a 5 V shift of the hold voltage has been experimentally observed on first prototypes. Reliability of thermal actuation has been tested with more than 10/sup 9/ cycles without any failure or contact degradation. Very interesting RF performances were measured, even with standard wafer (15/spl Omega/.cm) : -57 dB isolation and 0.18 dB insertion loss at 2 GHz.

XiSystem: a XiRisc-based SoC with a reconfigurable IO module

Abstract: In the nanometer era, the increase in nonrecurring engineering costs is a challenge for SoCs that can be faced through a standardization process. Hardware specialization of a standard platform to a given application can be achieved by exploiting reconfigurable technology. This paper presents a XiSystem SoC, which integrates two different field-programmable devices to provide application-specific computing blocks and IOs. A XiRisc reconfigurable processor is exploited to achieve more than one order of magnitude speed-up and energy consumption reduction vis-a/spl grave/-vis a DSP-like processor, while an eFPGA is integrated in the system in order to make it flexible enough to support various IO ports and protocols. The reconfigurable IO device is also utilized for pre/post data processing and implementation of some standard computational blocks.