公开(公告)号：EP0792487A1

公开(公告)日：1997-09-03

申请号：EP96935832.0

申请日：1996-09-13

Applicant: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY INC.

Inventor： NOLAN, James, B. ,  DELLACROCE, Brian

IPC: G06F1 ,  H02J7

CPC classification number: G06F1/28 ,  G06F1/3203 ,  H02J7/0052

Abstract: A microcontroller (10) for use in battery charging and monitoring applications, including a microprocessor (12) and front end analog circuitry (30, 32) for allowing a plurality of analog input signals to be converted to corresponding digital counts indicative of signal level. The analog circuitry also includes two charge rate control channels (50, 51) which may be used as level detectors to determine when an input signal exceeds or falls below a digitally programmable threshold level. The level detector functions to set a flag and provide an interrupt to the microprocessor (12) when the analog input signal exceeds (or alternately falls below) the programmable threshold voltage. Accordingly, this interrupt may be used to 'wake-up' the microprocessor (12) from a sleep mode.

公开(公告)号：EP0829074A1

公开(公告)日：1998-03-18

申请号：EP96936460.0

申请日：1996-10-11

Applicant: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY INC.

Inventor： NOLAN, James, B. ,  DELLACROCE, Brian

IPC: G06F9 ,  G08B21 ,  H02J7

CPC classification number: H02J7/0011

Abstract: A microcontroller for use in battery charging and monitoring applications is disclosed. The microcontroller includes a microprocessor and various front-end analog circuitry such as a slope A/D converter (#30) and a multiplexer (#32) for allowing a plurality of analog input signals to be converted (#50-51) to corresponding digital counts indicative of signal level (#48). The microcontroller also includes an I2C interface (#58) for supporting a bi-directional two wire bus and data transmission protocol that is useful for serially communicating with other peripheral or microcontroller devices (#12). By making use of the I2C interface, the microcontroller can be programmed while in the end application circuit. Such a feature allows customers to manufacture boards with unprogrammed devices and then progam the microcontroller just before shipping the product. This allows the most recent firmware or a custom firmware to be programmed.

公开(公告)号：EP0811191A1

公开(公告)日：1997-12-10

申请号：EP96939461.0

申请日：1996-10-10

Applicant: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY INC.

Inventor： NOLAN, James, B. ,  DELLACROCE, Brian ,  COOPER, Russell, E.

IPC: G01K7 ,  G05D23 ,  G06F15 ,  H02J7 ,  G06F11

CPC classification number: G05D23/1917 ,  G06F11/3024 ,  G06F11/3058 ,  G06F11/3093 ,  H02J7/0004

Abstract: A microcontroller (10) for use in battery charging and monitoring applications is disclosed. The microcontroller (10) includes a microprocessor (12) and various front-end analog circuitry including a slope A/D converter (30) and a multiplexer for allowing a plurality of analog input signals to be converted to corresponding digital counts indicative of signal level. The microcontroller (10) further includes an on-chip temperature sensor (54) used in conjunction with the A/D converter (30), to monitor the temperature of the microcontroller (10). The temperature sensor (54) generates and uses a differential voltage that is obtained across the base-emitter junctions of two compatible bipolar transistors having dissimilar emitter areas. This differential voltage is proportional to temperature and may be sampled by the A/D converter (30) to obtain a digital count indicative of the temperature of the microcontroller (10).

公开(公告)号：EP0797802A2

公开(公告)日：1997-10-01

申请号：EP96945378.0

申请日：1996-09-11

Applicant: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY INC.

Inventor： DELLACROCE, Brian ,  NOLAN, James, B. ,  NGUYEN, Hung, Q.

IPC: G01D3 ,  G01R19 ,  G01R31 ,  G01R35 ,  G06F15 ,  H02J7 ,  H03M1

CPC classification number: H02J7/0077 ,  G01R35/005 ,  H02J7/0052

Abstract: A microcontroller (10) for use in battery charging and monitoring applications is disclosed. The microcontroller (10) includes a microprocessor (12) and various front-end analog circuitry such as a slope A/D converter (30) and a multiplexer (32) for allowing a plurality of analog input signals to be converted to corresponding digital counts indicative of signal level. In order to make the measurements of the selected analog inputs more precise, the microcontroller (10) uses a unique calibration procedure whereby selected parameters associated with the analog circuitry that are subject to variation are measured during test and corresponding calibration constants are calculated therefrom and stored in program memory. These stored calibration constants are subsequently used by the microprocessor (12) in conjunction with the digital counts of the analog input signals for calculating a more precise measurement of the analog input signals.