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:
May. 18, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 02, 1997
Madhav V Kolluri, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Gregory L Schaffer, Cupertino, CA (US);
Maxim Integrated Products, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A circuit for controllably coupling an input to an output. The circuit includes: (1) a pass transistor having an emitter, a collector and a base, the emitter being coupled to the input, the collector being coupled to the output; (2) a second transistor coupled to the pass transistor, and biased to operate with a collector-to-base voltage approximately equal to zero; and (3) a control circuit coupled to the input, the output and the base of the pass transistor, the control circuit controllably turning the pass transistor on. When the pass transistor is turned on, the control circuit maintains in the pass transistor a collector current approximately equal to a predetermined scale factor times the collector current of the second transistor. The predetermined scale factor ensures that the pass transistor operates at the edge of a saturation region when the pass transistor is turned on.