Exar Corporation

Other

Centillium Communications, Inc.

Xiaole Chen

Roger A Levinson

A continuous-time filter is highly linear even when used with reduced 3-volt power supplies. In each stage of a multi-stage ladder network, resistor networks are attached to each input of a differential op amp. Each resistor network uses fixed resistors in series between the inputs and an intermediate node, and a fixed input resistor between the intermediate node and the op-amp input. The fixed input resistor improves linearity compared with a linear transistor. A transistor connects the internal node to ground, acting as a variable resistor to adjust the equivalent resistance of the resistor network. A control voltage applied to the gate of the transistor is generated by an analog control loop. The control voltage is the voltage input to a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) in a phase-locked loop (PLL). The analog PLL control loop adjusts the control voltage and the resistance continuously as the filter operates. A voltage comparator detects when the control voltage is out of a range, activating a calibration signal. Filtering stops and a digital successive-approximation register adjusts capacitances of feedback capacitors around the op amps. The capacitance in the VCO is also adjusted, changing the control voltage. Capacitance converges to the desired value by comparing the control voltage to a mid-range target voltage.

Highly-linear continuous-time filter for a 3-volt supply with

A soft clipper circuit in CMOS technology not only allows the knee to be programmed, but also the slope of the curve after the knee to be programmed. This is accomplished by putting a second transconductance in parallel with the first transconductance, and using a switching circuit to connect the output of the second transconductance to that of the first transconductance when the knee level is reached. This is determined by a comparator which has an input coupled to the second transconductance and controls a control node of the switching circuit.

CMOS soft clipper

An improved CMOS CDS circuit which can operate on 2.7 volts, provides increased noise immunity and can handle a 0.8 volts maximum signal input. The present invention provides internal capacitors to isolate the input pads. The present invention also provides switches and capacitors to perform a sample and hold function on every pixel value.

Low noise low power CMOS correlated double sampler

A programmable gain amplifier which can be realized using CMOS transistors. The amplifier provides a plurality of linear gain segments, with each of the gain segments having a different gain. A particular combination of the gain segments are selected using a digital control input to give an approximation of a linear dB output. By appropriately choosing the segments and how they combine, an approximation that is accurate to the least significant bit of a digital system can be provided.

Piece-wise linear approximation of a dB linear programmable gain

A circuit technique for implementing programmable zeros in high speed CMOS filters is disclosed. The circuit uses both PMOS and NMOS type transconductance elements to implement a biquad with a real zero and two complex poles. The NMOS transconductance element is biased by the total bias current required by several PMOS transconductance elements and can thus provide larger transconductance as required by the equalization function. Programmability is achieved by dividing the NMOS transconductance elements into a plurality of identical sub-elements that are connected in parallel via digitally programmable switches.

Circuit technique for implementing programmable zeros in high speed CMOS

A circuit technique for improving high frequency performance of current-controlled transconductor elements in transconductance-capacitance (g.sub.m -C) based monolithic filters. The circuit detects the output impedance of the transconductance transistors inside the transconductor element, regenerates and applies a negative conductance to the output of the transconductor. By cancelling the transistor output impedance, the total differential mode output impedance of the transconductor element can be maximized.

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Milpitas, CA, United States of America

Xiaole Chen