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:
Oct. 20, 1998
Filed:
Mar. 04, 1996
Shyam S Somayajula, Austin, TX (US);
Crystal Semiconductor, Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
An amplifier circuit having four variable impedance nodes is provided. The amplifier has split transconductance current paths. Each half of the amplifier has two such current paths and each current path has a node which may be either a high impedance or low impedance node. Connected between the two nodes is a transistor which is utilized in driving the nodes to their either high or low impedance state. The invention is particularly useful in a folded cascode amplifier used for driving loud speakers. However, the circuitry may also be used in other amplifiers or other applications. Further, the linearity of the amplifier's transfer curve may be improved to provide improved performance for high resistive loads. Thus, a class A-B amplifier is provided which can drive a wide range of resistive loads with varying linearity requirements. Moreover, the amplifier can be programmed to provide a high linearity region depending on the desired application.