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:
Jul. 21, 1998
Filed:
Feb. 29, 1996
Sean Foster Garnett, Lexington, KY (US);
Terry Lee Parker, Versailles, KY (US);
John Parker Richey, Lexington, KY (US);
Warren John Spina, Lexington, KY (US);
Larry Wayne True, Georgetown, KY (US);
Lexmark International, Inc., Lexington, KY (US);
Abstract
An ASIC (5) has four driver circuits (19a-19d), each with different output power. One of those driver circuits is selected from the content of register (13) on the ASIC. The register content being decoded by a decoder (15) on the ASIC to a signal which activates a single one of the drivers. The register is loaded from an external microprocessor during each initialization of a printer (1) in which the ASIC is a component. The ASIC is designed with the range of the powers of the drivers bracketing the estimated needs of the load to be attached to the ASIC. This permits the ASIC to be completed only once, while the most suitable driver for the final load is determined subsequently and selected by the entry of data to activate that driver into the register with each initialization of the printer. The ASIC need not have nonvolatile memory and only a single set of ASIC masks and other design aspects need be completed.