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. 23, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 12, 2000
John McNitt, Fort Collins, CO (US);
Brett Hardy, Eden Prairie, MN (US);
LSI Logic Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
A termination impedance in a semiconductor circuit is trimmed to fall within a desired range by a trimming circuit such that the amount of variation in the termination impedance is less than the variation in the sheet rho (resistivity) of the semiconductor. An external reference resistor causes a reference current to flow in multiple branches of a current mirror circuit. One branch of the current mirror circuit has a resistance less than the reference resistor, another has a resistance approximately equal to the reference resistor, and another has resistance greater than the reference resistor. Variation in the sheet rho results voltage drops across the resistor in variation in the resistor values. A logic circuit detects the variations, and encodes a control signal. The control signal is received by a variable termination circuit that switches parallel resistance branches in or out of the termination impedance circuit such that an effective termination impedance is selected based upon the control signal. The resulting termination impedance is thereby maintained within a higher tolerance range than the variation in the termination impedance that would otherwise result from sheet rho variation. 37 CFR 1.72( ).