The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 22, 1978
Filed:
Apr. 15, 1977
Charles Albert Clark, Jr, Chatsworth, CA (US);
Kenneth Charles Adam, Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
RCA Corporation, New York, NY (US);
Abstract
The collector current of a first transistor serves as the base drive current for a second transistor of opposite conductivity type than the first transistor. When conduction occurs through the collector-to-emitter path of the second transistor, a conducting diode connected between the emitter of the first transistor and the collector of the second transistor clamps this collector to a relatively fixed voltage level referenced to the fixed base voltage of the first transistor. This prevents saturation of the second transistor and thus reduces the 'storage delay', that is the turn-off time delay of the second transistor. In addition, the charge stored at the base electrode of the second transistor is removed when its collector-to-emitter current flow is interrupted to further reduce the turn-off time of this transistor.