Circuit and method for sensing a physical quantity, an oscillator circuit, a smartcard, and a temperature-sensing circuit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8979362-B2
Application number	US-201213396923-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 15, 2012
Priority date	Feb 15, 2012
Publication date	Mar 17, 2015
Grant date	Mar 17, 2015

Abstract

A circuit for sensing a physical quantity according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a first oscillator circuit configured to provide a first clock signal including a first frequency depending on the physical quantity, and a second oscillator circuit configured to provide a second clock signal comprising a second frequency depending on the physical quantity. The circuit also includes a frequency comparator circuit configured to provide a frequency signal indicative of the physical quantity, the frequency signal being based on the first and second frequencies, wherein the first and second oscillator circuits are configured to provide the first and second clock signals such that due to a change in the physical quantity one frequency of the first and second frequencies increases, while the other frequency of the first and second frequencies decreases.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A circuit for sensing a physical quantity, the sensing circuit comprising:
a first oscillator circuit configured to provide a first clock signal comprising a first frequency depending on the physical quantity;
a second oscillator circuit configured to provide a second clock signal comprising a second frequency depending on the physical quantity; and
a frequency comparator circuit configured to provide a frequency signal indicative of the physical quantit…

Assignees

• Weder Uwe
• Engl Korbinian
• Infineon Technologies Ag

Inventors

• Weder Uwe
• Engl Korbinian

Classifications

• G06K19/0717

  Physics · mapped topic

• G01K7/32 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G01D5/243

  Physics · mapped topic