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:
Sep. 15, 1998
Filed:
Nov. 26, 1996
Richard Stephen Roy, Danville, CA (US);
Hitachi Micro Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A signal transfer circuit for enabling rapids transfer of differential electrical signals among multiple signal paths is provided. The circuit comprises first and second pairs of signal transfer terminals, a pair of internal nodes, first and second pairs of isolation devices, a differential signal amplifier, a gain-enhancing cross-coupled pair of devices, and a precharge circuit. The first and second pairs of isolation devices are of a single device type and are coupled between respective ones of the signal transfer terminal pairs and the internal node pair. The isolation devices each have a control terminal for receiving an isolation control signal. The differential signal amplifier circuit is coupled to the internal nodes, and is comprised of complementary device types. The amplifier circuit has a control terminal for receiving an amplifier control signal for enabling the amplifier circuit. The gain-enhancing cross-coupled pair of devices are gated by the internal nodes and drive the transfer terminals directly. The precharge circuit is coupled to the pair of internal nodes and has a control terminal for receiving an internal precharge control signal. A differential signal applied to one of the pair of transfer signal terminals is transferred to the internal nodes for amplification by the differential amplifier circuit, and after which the amplified differential signal on the internal nodes is transferred without inversion to a different pair of transfer signal terminals.