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. 17, 2001
Filed:
Apr. 06, 2000
Terry C. Coughlin, Jr., Endicott, NY (US);
William F. Lawson, Vestal, NY (US);
Joseph M. Milewski, Endicott, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A low power CMOS bidirectional I/O buffer that translates low voltage core logic level signals into the higher voltage logic level signals. A first predrive stage is provided, comprising buffers (e.g., CMOS inverters) for tuning and balancing the circuit and the core signal combining circuit of a second predrive stage, thereby enabling IC designers to reduce the size of transistors in the level-shifting stage and providing more flexibility in the tuning of the predrive circuitry to synchronize or balance the logical transitions of the complementary transistors of the output driving stage. The invention provides a faster balanced level-shifting output buffer which enables higher frequency operation.