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US 8,134,710 B2Granted
Particulate detector system
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsKeiichi Kajino, Mitsuharu Iwasaki, Tatsuyuki Nihei
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A particulate detector system is provided that can sense particulates (such as smoke in the air). The system employs a reflected light system that generally avoids making measurements of light intensity. Instead, coded signals are compared with one another to determine error rates between emitted light and detected light (across a chamber). Based on the error rate, processing circuitry can determine particulate concentration.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- a signal generator that receives a clock signal;
- a driver that is coupled to the signal generator;
- an emitter that is coupled to the driver, wherein the emitter emits light;
- a detector that is adapted to receive light emitted from the emitter;
- a signal regenerator that receive the clock signal and that is coupled to the detector;
- an error detector that is coupled to the signal regenerator and to the signal generator, wherein the error detector compares a set of bits output from the signal generator to a corresponding set of bits output from the signal regenerator and determines the number of errors between the sets of bits output from the signal generator and the signal regenerator;
- and
- processing circuitry that is coupled to the error detector so as to compare the number of error to a threshold to determine a particulate concentration between the emitter and the detector.
5 more elements
An apparatus comprising:
- a chamber;
- a signal generator that receives a clock signal;
- a driver that is coupled to the signal generator;
- an emitter that is coupled to the driver and that is secured to the chamber, wherein the emitter emits light;
- a detector that is adapted to receive light emitted from the emitter and that is secured to the chamber;
- a signal regenerator that receive the clock signal and that is coupled to the detector;
- an error detector that is coupled to the signal regenerator and to the signal generator, wherein the error detector compares a set of bits output from the signal generator to a corresponding set of bits output from the signal regenerator and determines the number of errors between the sets of bits output from the signal generator and the signal regenerator;
- and
- processing circuitry that is coupled to the error detector so as to compare the number of error to a threshold to determine a particulate concentration within the chamber between the emitter and the detector.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.