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:
Dec. 12, 2000
Filed:
Nov. 12, 1998
David P Morrill, Scarborough, ME (US);
Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation, South Portland, ME (US);
Abstract
A fabrication- and temperature-independent power-on reset circuit for providing improved control over live insertion of integrated circuitry. The reset circuit includes a comparator having an output terminal and two input terminals, one positive and one negative. One of the two terminals is coupled to a first threshold turn-on branch and the other terminal is coupled to a second threshold turn-on branch. Both threshold branches are referenced to ground but they supply different initial potentials to the terminals of the comparator. As a result, one terminal acting as the reference terminal holds the circuit output of the present invention at a potential designed to halt circuit power-on regardless of independent enable control pin signals. The other of the two terminals does not trigger switching of the comparator output until after a common supply power rail reaches a desired potential at initial turn-on. Referencing of the two threshold branches of the circuit to ground ensures that fabrication and temperature vagaries are effectively cancelled out.