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:
Feb. 16, 1988
Filed:
Feb. 08, 1985
Michael H Hilford, Newport Beach, CA (US);
Nathan Tobol, Wrentham, MA (US);
Triconex Corporation, Irvine, CA (US);
Abstract
A majority-voted output circuit generates an output parameter which is the majority vote of its input parameters by series-parallel combination of four intermediate switches, each said switch being a Boolean function of the input parameters, and the circuit being arranged so that failure of any one switch does not affect the value of the output parameter. Alternate embodiments are provided which use 'don't care' signals to allow the majority vote of less than the full complement of input parameters. The majority-voted output circuit is subjected to testing by stepped transitions of its input parameters (to test for failure of any of the four intermediate switches) and by forcing current flow through predetermined current paths (to test for failure of a particular electrical connection).