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:
Nov. 26, 1991
Filed:
May. 15, 1990
Abbas El Gamel, Palo Alto, CA (US);
SiArc, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
In one embodiment of the invention, an inverter inverts an input signal and provides this inverted input signal into the base of an NPN bipolar transistor, acting as a pull-up device, whose collector is coupled to a positive power supply voltage. The input signal coupled to the input of the inverter is also coupled to the gate of a large N-channel MOSFET, acting as a pull-down device, having its drain coupled to the emitter of the bipolar transistor and its source coupled to ground. The common node of the bipolar transistor and the N-channel MOSFET provides the output signal of the driver. This driver uses much less area than a standard two-bipolar transistor BiCMOS driver with substantially equal performance. A small P-channel MOSFET having its gate connected to the input signal may be connected across the base and emitter of the bipolar transistor to provide a full output voltage at the output of the driver.