Signal generator, a decoder, a method for generating a transmit signal and a method for determining speed data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9973835-B2
Application number	US-201615363249-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 29, 2016
Priority date	Jan 28, 2013
Publication date	May 15, 2018
Grant date	May 15, 2018

Abstract

A signal generator comprises a signal provider and a signal processing unit. The signal provider is configured to provide a sensor signal indicating a repeatedly detected event, occurring within differing time intervals. The signal processing unit is configured to generate a transmit signal based on the sensor signal. The transmit signal comprises event information representing the temporal occurrence of the event and additional information representing additional data. The event information comprises pulses associated to detected events, wherein the pulses are temporarily separated within the transmit signal according to the differing time intervals of detected events so that each time interval of the differing time intervals comprises one pulse associated to a detected event. Further, the additional data comprises at least one frame comprising a predefined number of additional data bits. The information of the additional data bits of the at least one frame is distributed over at least two time intervals of the differing time intervals.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A signal generator comprising:
a signal provider configured to provide a sensor signal indicating a repeatedly detected event, occurring within differing time intervals; and
a signal processing unit configured to generate a transmit signal based on the sensor signal, wherein the transmit signal comprises event information representing a temporal occurrence of the detected event and additional information representing additional data, wherein the event information comprises pulses associated to the detected events, wherein the pulses are temporally separated within the transmit signal according to the differing time intervals of the detected events so that each time interval of the differing time intervals comprises one pulse associated to a corresponding detected event, wherein the additional data comprises at least one frame comprising a predefined number of additional data bits, wherein the additional information of the additional data bits of the at least one frame is distributed over at least two time intervals of the differing time intervals,
wherein the signal processing unit is configured to generate the transmit signal so that the transmit signal comprises at least one alive pulse within a long time interval of the differing time intervals, if the long time interval is longer than a predefined alive notification time interval, wherein the at least one alive pulse is configured to notify a device receiving the transmit signal that the signal generator is still working.

2. The signal generator according to claim 1 , wherein the transmit signal comprises a plurality of alive pulses within the long time interval, if the long time interval is longer than twice the predefined alive notification time interval, wherein the alive pulses of the plurality of alive pulses are temporally separated within the long time interval so that every predefined alive notification time interval comprises one alive pulse.

3. The signal generator according to claim 2 , wherein the signal processing unit is configured to map the additional information of at least a part of the additional data bits of the at least one frame to the transmit signal by using a pulse width modulation of the alive pulses comprised by the predefined alive notification time intervals within the long time interval or by adding Manchester coded sequences to the predefined alive notification time intervals within the long time interval.

4. The signal generator according to claim 2 , wherein the additional information of the additional data bits of the at least one frame is distributed over at least two predefined alive notification time intervals.

5. The signal generator according to claim 4 , wherein each predefined alive notification time interval of the predefined alive notification time intervals within the long time interval comprises information of the same number of bits of the additional data bits of the at least one frame.

6. The signal generator according to claim 2 , wherein the additional data further comprises a separator preceding the at least one frame, wherein the separator indicates a beginning of the at least one frame and comprises a predefined number of separator bits, wherein the information of the separator is distributed over at least two predefined alive notification time intervals.

7. The signal generator according to claim 1 , wherein the predefined alive notification time interval is longer than 50 ms and shorter than 200 ms.

8. The signal generator according to claim 1 , wherein the signal provider is a sensor unit and the signal generator further comprises a signal generator output, wherein the sensor unit is configured to detect repeatedly the events, occurring within the differing time intervals, wherein the signal generator output is configured to provide the transmit signal.

9. The signal generator according to claim 8 , wherein the sensor unit is configured to detect repeatedly the events occurring within the differing time intervals, which is caused by a moving or rotating part in the proximity of the sensor unit, wherein the lengths of the differing time intervals between succeeding detected events depend on a speed of travel or a rotational speed of the moving or rotating part.

10. The signal generator according to claim 9 , wherein the sensor unit is configured to detect additionally a moving direction or a rotational direction of the moving or rotating part and provide this direction data.

11. The signal generator according to claim 1 , wherein the signal processing unit is configured to generate transmit data of the transmit signal, so that the additional data to be added to the transmit data comprises direction data indicating the moving direction or the rotational direction of the moving or rotating part additionally to the at least one frame.

12. The signal generator according to claim 11 , wherein the direction data is represented by one data bit, wherein information of the direction data is comprised by each time interval of the differing time intervals as long as the length of the time intervals is above a predefined limit.

13. The signal generator according to claim 12 , wherein the additional data within a time interval comprises direction data, if the length of the time interval is above the prefined limit only.

14. A signal generator comprising:
signal provider configured to provide a sensor signal indicating a repeatedly detected event, occurring within differing time intervals; and
a signal processing unit configured to generate a transmit signal based on the sensor signal, wherein the transmit signal comprises event information representing a temporal occurrence of the detected event and additional information representing additional data, wherein the event information comprises pulses associated to the detected events, wherein the pulses are temporally separated within the transmit signal according to the differing time intervals of the detected events so that each time interval of the differing time intervals comprises one pulse associated to a corresponding detected event,
wherein the signal processing unit is configured to generate the transmit signal so that the transmit signal comprises a plurality of alive pulses within a long time interval of the differing time intervals, if the long time interval is longer than twice a predefined alive notification time interval, wherein the alive pulses of the plurality of alive pulses are temporally separated within the long time interval so that every predefined alive notification time interval within the long time interval comprises one alive pulse, wherein the one alive pulse is configured to notify a device receiving the transmit signal that the signal generator is still working,
wherein the additional data comprises at least one frame comprising a predefined number of additional data bits, wherein the additional information of the additional data bits of the at least one frame is distributed over at least two predefined alive notification time intervals.

15. The signal generator according to claim 14 , wherein the additional information of the additional data bits of the at least one frame is distributed over at least two time intervals of the differing time intervals.

16. A decoder configured to determine speed data and additional data based on a received signal transmitted by a signal generator, wherein the decoder is configured to determine the speed data based on repeatedly and within differing time intervals occurring pulses within the received signal, wherein each time interval of the differing time intervals comprises one pulse

Assignees

• Infineon Technologies Ag

Inventors

• Hainz Simon
• Werth Tobias
• Westpfahl Michael
• Hermann Robert
• Coceani Lorenzo
• Hammerschmidt Dirk

Classifications

• H04Q9/14 Primary

  Calling by using pulses · CPC title

• G01P3/489

  Digital circuits therefor · CPC title

• G08C19/16 Primary

  in which transmission is by pulses · CPC title