Sensor device and related operating methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9417146-B2
Application number	US-201213479168-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 23, 2012
Priority date	May 23, 2012
Publication date	Aug 16, 2016
Grant date	Aug 16, 2016

Abstract

Apparatus, systems, and fabrication methods are provided for sensing devices. An exemplary sensing device includes a first sensing arrangement to measure a first property and provide one or more measured values for the first property, a second sensing arrangement to measure a second property, a storage element coupled to the second sensing arrangement to maintain a stored value for the second property measured by the second sensing arrangement, and a control system coupled to the first sensing arrangement and the storage element to determine one or more calibrated measurement values for the first property using the one or more measured values for the first property from the first sensing arrangement and the stored value for the second property.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A sensing device comprising:
a first sensing arrangement to measure a first property and provide one or more raw measurement values for the first property;
a first switching element coupled electrically in series between a reference voltage node and the first sensing arrangement;
a second sensing arrangement to measure a second property;
a second switching element coupled electrically in series between the reference voltage node and the second sensing arrangement;
a storage element coupled to the second sensing arrangement to maintain a stored raw measurement value for the second property measured by the second sensing arrangement at a previous sampling time; and
a control system coupled to the first sensing arrangement, the second sensing arrangement, and the storage element to:
activate the first switching element to activate and sample the first sensing arrangement to obtain the one or more raw measurement values at a current sampling time;
deactivate the second switching element to maintain the second sensing arrangement in a deactivated state while the first sensing arrangement is sampled to obtain the one or more raw measurement values, and
determine one or more calibrated measurement values for the first property using the one or more raw measurement values for the first property from the first sensing arrangement and the stored raw measurement value for the second property.

2. The sensing device of claim 1 , wherein the first sensing arrangement comprises a pressure sensing arrangement and the second sensing arrangement comprises a temperature sensing arrangement.

3. The sensing device of claim 1 , wherein the control system operates the first sensing arrangement to obtain the one or more raw measurement values of the first property in response to receiving a first signal after the previous sampling time.

4. The sensing device of claim 1 , wherein the first sensing arrangement, the second sensing arrangement, the storage element, and the control system are encapsulated in a single device package.

5. The sensing device of claim 1 , wherein the first sensing arrangement is formed on a first die and the second sensing arrangement, the storage element, and the control system are formed on a second die.

6. The sensing device of claim 5 , wherein the first switching element and the second switching element are formed on the second die.

7. The sensing device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a first sampling arrangement coupled to an output of the first sensing arrangement to sample a first output signal of the first sensing arrangement indicative of the first property; and
a second sampling arrangement coupled to an output of the second sensing arrangement to sample a second output signal of the second sensing arrangement indicative of the second property, wherein:
the storage element is coupled to an output of the second sampling arrangement;
the control system is coupled to the first sampling arrangement and the second sampling arrangement to operate the first sampling arrangement to obtain the one or more raw measurement values at the current sampling time and maintain the second sampling arrangement in a deactivated state while the first sampling arrangement is operated at the current sampling time.

8. The sensing device of claim 1 , further comprising an input terminal coupled to the control system to receive an indication to reuse the stored raw measurement value for the second property, wherein in response to the indication, the control system activates the first switching element and maintains the second switching element in a deactivated state while the first sensing arrangement is sampled.

9. A method comprising:
storing a first raw measurement value for a first property obtained using a first sensing arrangement at a first time, resulting in a stored raw measurement value for the first property;
deactivating a first switching element coupled electrically in series between the first sensing arrangement and a reference voltage node to deactivate the first sensing arrangement;
after deactivating the first sensing arrangement, receiving an indication to obtain a calibrated measurement for a second property after the first time; and
after receiving the indication:
activating a second switching element coupled electrically in series between a second sensing arrangement and the reference voltage node;
sampling the second sensing arrangement to obtain one or more raw measurement values for the second property;
maintaining the first switching element in a deactivated state to maintain the first sensing arrangement in a deactivated state while sampling the second sensing arrangement to obtain the one or more raw measurement values for the second property; and
determining a calibrated measurement value for the second property using the stored raw measurement value and the one or more raw measurement values for the second property.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
sampling the second sensing arrangement comprises providing a supply voltage to the second sensing arrangement; and
deactivating the first sensing arrangement comprises decoupling the supply voltage from the first sensing arrangement.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising receiving a second indication to utilize the stored raw measurement value for the calibrated measurement, wherein maintaining the first sensing arrangement in the deactivated state comprises maintaining the first sensing arrangement in the deactivated state in response to receiving the second indication.

12. The method of claim 9 , the first sensing arrangement comprising a temperature sensing arrangement and the second sensing arrangement comprising a pressure sensing arrangement, wherein:
storing the first raw measurement value comprises storing a temperature value measured by the temperature sensing arrangement at the first time;
sampling the second sensing arrangement comprises sampling the pressure sensing arrangement to obtain a pressure value measured by the pressure sensing arrangement; and
determining the calibrated measurement value comprises determining a calibrated pressure value based on the pressure value in a manner that is influenced by the temperature value measured at the first time.

13. The method of claim 9 , the indication being received at a second time, wherein determining the calibrated measurement value comprises determining the calibrated measurement value for the second property corresponding to the second time using the one or more raw measurement values sampled at or around the second time and the stored raw measurement value sampled at or around at the first time.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
storing the first raw measurement value comprises storing the first raw measurement value by a sensing device including the first sensing arrangement and the second sensing arrangement; and
receiving the indication comprises receiving the indication by the sensing device, wherein the sensing device outputs the calibrated measurement value.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
storing the first raw measurement value comprises storing the first raw measurement value by a sensing device including the first sensing arrangement and the second sensing arrangement;
deactivating the first sensing arrangement comprises the control system decoupling a supply voltage from the first sensing arrangement;
receiving the indication comprises a control system of the sensing device receiving the indication; and
sampling the second sensing arrangement comprises the control system operating a sampling arrang

Assignees

• Dawson Chad S
• Freescale Semiconductor Inc

Inventors

• Dawson Chad S

Classifications

• G01L27/002

  Calibrating, i.e. establishing true relation between transducer output value and value to be measured, zeroing, linearising or span error determination · CPC title

• G01L9/065 Primary

  with temperature compensating means (non electric temperature compensating means G01L19/04) · CPC title