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. 05, 1980
Filed:
Sep. 25, 1978
James E Gillberg, N. Plainfield, NJ (US);
Nicholas Kucharewski, Lebanon, NJ (US);
RCA Corporation, New York, NY (US);
Abstract
In a drive circuit having output current passing through at least one bipolar transistor, the rise and fall times of the output current are predetermined by controlling the rate of current change in the master path of a current mirror amplifier which has a separate slave path connected to supply base current for each bipolar transistor. The drain-source channel of an MOS transistor is connected to selectively supply current flow through the master path of the current mirror amplifier in one embodiment of the rate control means and the gate of the MOS transistor is connected in parallel with a capacitor to the output of a CMOS inverter to which control signals are applied. Multiple outputs are driven from a single control input in another embodiment having a single master path and multiple slave paths incorporated into the current mirror amplifier with each slave path being connected to supply base current for a separate bipolar output transistor and being coupled to the master path through a separate transmission gate in a decoder which includes a transmission gate for each slave path.