Electronic circuit

• US 8,933,590 B2
• Filed: 08/04/2009
• Issued: 01/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ThruChip Japan Inc.
• Original Assignee: KEIO University
• Inventors: Kuroda, Tadahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Fureman, Jared
• Assistant Examiner(s): BUKHARI, AQEEL H
• Application Number:
  US13/061,128
• Publication Number:
  US 20120007438A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,988 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 307/106
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0266 Arrangements for providing Galvanic isolation, e.g. by means of magnetic or capacitive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/061 providing hard decisions only; arrangements for tracking or suppressing unwanted low frequency components, e.g. removal of dc offset removal of dc offset in coupling arrangements H04L25/029, H04L25/0296
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/40 Transmitting circuits; Receiving circuits repeater circuits, relay circuits H04L25/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/493 by transition coding, i.e. the time-position or direction of a transition being encoded before transmission

Abstract

A low-power high-speed asynchronous inductive-coupling transmission and reception technology is provided, in which a current signal of a single pulse is made to flow through a transmitting coil, and a voltage signal of a double pulse induced in an inductively-coupled receiving coil can be received asynchronously. A transmitting circuit for performing non-contact proximity communication adopts a configuration in which current flows through a first coil in a first direction for each change of a logical value of transmit data. A receiving circuit connected to a second coil coupled inductively to the first coil employs a comparator which determines an induced voltage of a double pulse induced in the second coil by current in the first direction and outputs a unipolar single pulse signal. Whenever the single pulse signal outputted by the comparator is inputted, the receiving circuit inverts the output in a sequential circuit and reproduces receive data.

Claims

1. An electronic circuit comprising:

a first substrate comprising a first coil and a transmitting circuit for causing a pulse current in a first direction to flow through the first coil at each change of logical values of transmit data, a prearranged logical value being located in a head of each packet of transmit data; and

a second substrate comprising a second coil coupled inductively to the first coil, a receiving circuit connected to the second coil, and a control circuit connected the receiving circuit,

wherein the receiving circuit comprises;

a comparator, including an initialization transistor and an output node, for outputting a single pulse signal with a single polarity, by determining, with the use of a threshold voltage, an induced voltage with a double pulse shape induced in the second coil by the pulse current in the first direction; and

a sequential circuit, coupled to the output node, for inverting the output whenever the single pulse signal is inputted,

wherein the initialization transistor initializes the output node to a prearranged logical value during an initialization operation, and

wherein the control circuit performs the initialization operation at the head of each data packet.

2. The electronic circuit according to claim 1,

wherein the comparator determines the induced voltage of the double pulse shape based on a threshold voltage of an input with a hysteresis characteristic, and whenever the logical value of the output signal is reversed, the threshold voltage changes.

3. The electronic circuit according to claim 2,

wherein the control circuit initializes the threshold voltage of the input of the comparator to one of two values during the initialization operation.

4. The electronic circuit according to claim 3, wherein the transmitting circuit comprises:

a delay circuit for delaying the transmit data;

an exclusive OR gate including an input for the transmit data, an input for the delayed transmit data, and an output for a pulse signal; and

a driver for causing the pulse current in the first direction to flow through the first coil based on the pulse signal of the exclusive OR gate, and for stopping the flow of the pulse current in the first direction through the coil.

5. The electronic circuit according to claim 3, wherein the comparator comprises:

a first CMOS inverter having an input connected to one end of the second coil, and an output;

a second CMOS inverter having an input connected to another end of the second coil, and an output coupled to the output node;

a first latching PMOS transistor, coupled to a PMOS transistor of the first CMOS inverter in parallel, having a gate coupled to the output of the second CMOS inverter; and

a second latching PMOS transistor, coupled to a PMOS transistor of the second CMOS inverter in parallel, having a gate coupled to the output of the first CMOS inverter,

wherein the initialization transistor is a MOS transistor, coupled to the output of the second CMOS inverter, having a gate coupled to the control circuit.

6. An electronic circuit, comprising:

a first substrate comprising a first coil and a transmitting circuit for causing a pulse current in a first direction to flow through the first coil at each change of logical values of transmit data, a prearranged logical value being located in a head of each packet of transmit data; and

a second substrate comprising a second coil coupled inductively to the first coil, a receiving circuit connected to the second coil, and a control circuit connected the receiving circuit,

wherein the receiving circuit comprises;

a comparator, including an initialization transistor and an output node, for outputting a single pulse signal with a single polarity, by determining, with the use of a threshold voltage, an induced voltage with a double pulse shape induced in the second coil by the pulse current in the first direction; and

a sequential circuit, coupled to the output node, for inverting the output whenever the single pulse signal is inputted,

wherein the first substrate further comprises a third coil and a third-coil transmitting circuit for causing to flow, through the third coil, a pulse current in a different direction depending on the change of a logical value of the transmit data,

wherein the second substrate further comprises a fourth coil coupled inductively to the third coil and a fourth-coil receiving circuit connected to the fourth coil,

wherein the third-coil transmitting circuit determines pulse width of the pulse current,

wherein the pulse width is made wide enough to shape an induced voltage induced in the fourth coil according to the rate of change of the pulse current, like a pair of single pulses with different polarities, and

wherein the fourth-coil receiving circuit comprises a hysteresis comparator determining the induced voltage with the shape of single pulses and outputting the determination result.

7. An electronic circuit, comprising:

a first substrate comprising a first coil and a transmitting circuit for causing a pulse current in a first direction to flow through the first coil at each change of logical values of first transmit data, a prearranged logical value being located in a head of each packet of first transmit data; and

a second substrate comprising a second coil coupled inductively to the first coil, a receiving circuit connected to the second coil, and a control circuit connected the receiving circuit,

wherein the receiving circuit comprises;

a comparator, including an initialization transistor and an output node, for outputting a single pulse signal with a single polarity, by determining, with the use of a threshold voltage, an induced voltage with a double pulse shape induced in the second coil by the pulse current in the first direction; and

a sequential circuit, coupled to the output node, for inverting the output whenever the single pulse signal is inputted,

wherein the first substrate further comprises a third coil and a third-coil transmitting circuit for causing to flow, through the third coil, a pulse current of a different direction depending on the change of a logical value of second transmit data,

wherein the second substrate further comprises a fourth coil coupled inductively to the third coil, a fourth-coil receiving circuit connected to the fourth coil, and a control circuit processing receive data received by the receiving circuit,

wherein the third-coil transmitting circuit determines the pulse width of the pulse current based on a delay time generated by a delay element,

wherein the pulse width is made wide enough to shape an induced voltage induced in the fourth coil according to the rate of change of the pulse current, like a pair of single pulses with different polarities,

wherein the fourth-coil receiving circuit comprises a hysteresis comparator determining the induced voltage with the shape of single pulses and outputting the determination result,

wherein the second transmit data comprises 2-bit dummy data with different logical values in a head of each data packet, and

wherein the control circuit ignores the two bits in the head of each packet of the receive data.