# US 7,466,753 B2 · Microcontroller having a digital to frequency converter and/or a pulse frequency modulator

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- Number: US 7,466,753 B2
- Document ID: US7466753B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 11/000,777
- Filed: 2004-12-01
- Published: 2006-06-01
- Granted: 2008-12-16
- Earliest claimed: 2004-12-01
- Assignees: Microchip Technology Incorporated
- Inventors: Scott Raymond Fink; Johannes Albertus van Niekerk; Joseph Harry Julicher
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US7466753B2

## CPC

- H03K 7/06: Frequency or rate modulation, i.e. PFM or PRM
- H03K: PULSE TECHNIQUE (measuring pulse characteristics G01R; modulating sinusoidal oscillations with pulses H03C; transmission of digital information H04L; discriminator circuits detecting phase difference between two signals by counting or integrating cycles of oscillation H03D3/04; automatic control, starting, synchronisation or stabilisation of generators of electronic oscillations or pulses where the type of generator is irrelevant or unspecified H03L; coding, decoding or code conversion, in general H03M)

## Abstract

A microcontroller having digital to frequency converter and pulse frequency modulator capabilities. The digital to frequency converter (DFC) generates a 50 percent duty cycle square wave signal that may be varied in frequency, wherein the 50 percent duty cycle square wave signal is directly proportional and linear with a count value put into an increment register. The pulse to frequency modulator (PFM) generates pulses having pulse widths of the input clock for each rollover of a counter. The frequency of these pulses is directly proportional and linear with the count value put into the increment register.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for digital-to-frequency conversion and pulse frequency modulation with an integrated circuit microcontroller having a timer/counter and an increment register, said method comprising the steps of:
providing a count-value in the timer/counter;
providing an N-value in the increment register;
adding the count-value and the N-value, then storing the result in the timer/counter at each one of a plurality of clock pulses;
selecting a high-order bit of the timer/counter for the digital-to-frequency conversion; and
selecting a carry-out resulting from the step of adding for the pulse frequency modulation.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of storing the N-value in a slave register.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of inverting the digital-to-frequency conversion and the pulse frequency modulation.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of generating a dead band between the digital-to-frequency conversion and the inverted digital-to-frequency conversion.

### Claim 5 (depends on 3)

The method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of generating a dead band between the pulse frequency modulation and the inverted pulse frequency modulation.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of synchronizing the plurality of clock pulses to an event.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of pre-scaling the frequency of the plurality of clock pulses.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of writing data to the increment register with a central processing unit of the microcontroller.