Infineon Technologies Americas Corp.

Aswath Krishnan Krishnamoorthy

Anthony B Candage

A transmitter circuit comprises: an input, an encoder circuit, and a transmitter. During operation, the transmitter circuit receives an input signal. The encoder circuit encodes the received input signal into an encoded signal. The encoder circuit produces the encoded signal: i) to indicate changing states of the input signal, and ii) to include a supplemental transient signal with respect to the received input signal. The transmitter transmits the encoded signal from an output of the first circuit over a link to a second circuit such as a receiver circuit. A receiver decodes the encoded signal to reproduce a rendition of the input signal to control remote power supply circuitry. Presence of the supplemental transient signal in the encoded signal indicates to the receiver circuit that the first circuit actively transmits the output signal even though there may not be any change to a current state of the input signal.

Communication over a voltage isolation barrier

During operation, a supply voltage and the reference voltage power a novel multi-level pulse generator circuit. The multi-level pulse generator circuit generates voltage pulses of varying magnitude from a respective output port. For example, the multi-level pulse generator circuit produces respective pulses to have magnitudes that fall inside and outside of a range defined by the supply voltage and the reference voltage. Expansion of the pulse magnitudes to be outside of the range as defined by the supply voltage and the reference voltage increases noise immunity and therefore enables a respective transmitter to transmit data at higher bandwidth. The multi-level pulse generator circuit can be fabricated using a set of multiple transistors of only a single type in which each of the multiple transistors in the set has a corresponding oxide breakdown voltage that is substantially less than the respective magnitude that falls outside of the range.

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Providence, RI, United States of America

Aswath Krishnan Krishnamoorthy