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. 13, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 08, 1997
Applicant:
Inventors:
Xiaole Chen, Milpitas, CA (US);
Roger Levinson, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Assignee:
Exar Corporation, Fremont, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H03K / ; H03L / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
327318 ; 327103 ; 327404 ; 327322 ;
Abstract
A soft clipper circuit in CMOS technology not only allows the knee to be programmed, but also the slope of the curve after the knee to be programmed. This is accomplished by putting a second transconductance in parallel with the first transconductance, and using a switching circuit to connect the output of the second transconductance to that of the first transconductance when the knee level is reached. This is determined by a comparator which has an input coupled to the second transconductance and controls a control node of the switching circuit.