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:
Sep. 25, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 24, 1999
Kouji Yokosawa, Tokyo, JP;
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A voltage follower and a semiconductor integrated circuit including the voltage follower. In the voltage follower, an output voltage Vout from a source follower output transistor,is negative fed back to a gate electrode of the source follower output transistor,via a differential amplifier,A clamp circuit,is provided which clamps the gate potential of the source follower transistor,by using a source and backgate potential of the source follower transistor,that is, potential at an output terminal,as a reference potential. Since the source-gate voltage of the source follower transistor,is clamped at a predetermined voltage and thus the maximum electric field applied to the gate oxide film is reduced, it becomes possible to use a MOS transistor having thin gate oxide film and short channel length and having high current drive ability, as a source follower transistor, even when a power supply voltage is high.