Texas Instruments Corporation

Paul Stulik

Binan Wang

Guruvayurappan Mathur

Poornika Fernandes

John Kenneth Arch

Ye Shao

Hugo Cheung

An integrated circuit (IC) includes a substrate and a first capacitor on the substrate. The first capacitor has a first width. A first dielectric layer is provided on a side of the first capacitor opposite the substrate. Further, a second capacitor is present on a side of the first dielectric layer opposite the first capacitor. The second capacitor has a second width that is smaller than the first width. The IC also has a second dielectric layer and a first metal layer. The second dielectric layer is on a side of the second capacitor opposite the first dielectric layer. The first metal layer is on a side of the second dielectric layer opposite the second capacitor.

Stacked capacitor

Circuits and methods for minimizing charge losses due to negative transient voltage at summing terminals of an analog to digital converter (ADC) are disclosed. The ADC is coupled to a multi-bit digital to analog converter (DAC) at the summing terminals. The ADC and the DAC include PMOS and NMOS transistors whose timing are controlled to reduce charge losses. The PMOS transistors are turned ON before the NMOS transistors. Also, the PMOS transistor of the ADC is turned ON at a slower rate than the PMOS transistors of the DAC.

Circuits and methods for reducing charge losses in switched capacitor analog to digital converters

An input sampling stage circuit includes, a precharge buffer, a precharge switch-capacitor circuit, and an input sampling capacitor. The precharge buffer is configured to buffer an input voltage. The precharge switch-capacitor circuit includes a plurality of switches, a first capacitor, and a second capacitor configured such that the first and second capacitors are connected in series during a coarse sampling time and in parallel during a fine sampling time and charge transfer time. The input sampling capacitor is configured to sample the input voltage through the precharge switch-capacitor circuit during the coarse sampling time and sample the input voltage directly during the fine sampling time.

Precharge switch-capacitor circuit and method

A power on reset (POR) circuit is provided. For the POR circuit, a PMOS transistor is coupled to a first voltage rail at its source. A drive circuit is coupled to the drain of the PMOS transistor and is configured to output a POR signal. A voltage divider is coupled between the drain of the PMOS transistor and the second voltage rail. A switch network is provided as well, which has first and second switches. The first switch is coupled between the gate of the PMOS transistor and the voltage divider, and the second switch is coupled between the gate of the PMOS transistor and the voltage divider. A controller is also coupled to control the first and second switches, wherein the first and second switches are complementary driven.

Power on reset apparatus

A low charge injection, low clock feed-through switch () has an input signal (Vin) applied both to the sources of first (S) and second () switching transistors. A first clock signal (P) having pulses of a first duration ts is applied to a gate of the first switching transistor, and a second clock signal (P) having pulses of a second duration m&#xd7;ts substantially less than the first duration is applied to a gate of the second switching transistor. A capacitor (C) is charged toward the input voltage through both the first and second switching transistors during the pulse of the second clock signal. The capacitor is charged further toward the input voltage during a remaining portion of the pulse of the first clock signal.

Circuit and method for reducing charge injection and clock feed-through in switched capacitor circuits

A voltage monitor circuit for biasing a well region of a CMOS circuit includes a self-biased comparator which compares first (INP) and second (INN) input signals. The comparator includes first (MN) and second (MN) N-channel transistors with grounded sources, a drain of the first N-channel transistor and a gate of the second N-channel transistor being coupled to a first output (OUTN), and a drain of the second N-channel transistor and a gate of the first N-channel transistor being coupled to a second output (OUTP). First (MP) and second (MP) P-channel transistors are operated to couple the second or first input signal to the second or first output, respectively, by controlling the gate-to-source voltage of the first or second P-channel transistor according to the polarity of a voltage difference between the first and second input signals.

Self-biased comparator with hysteresis control for power supply monitoring and method

A tri-value decoder and method for decoding at least three states of an input signal are provided. An exemplary tri-value decoder and method can facilitate decoding of input signals without the use of threshold values and/or forcing a tri-state input signal to a mid-rail value for tri-state detection, and with less dependence on variations in product, process and temperature. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, an exemplary tri-value decoder circuit comprises a switch circuit, a feedback loop and a sequence detector. An exemplary switch circuit is configured to facilitate sampling of a tri-state input signal through control by the feedback loop, with the sequence detector configured for decoding the tri-state input signal into a two-bit digital signal by detecting at least two samples of the tri-state input signal during a sampling period.

Growing community of inventors

Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Paul Stulik