Capacitively-coupled extended swing zero-dc-power active termination with cmos overshoot/undershoot clamps

Abstract

An active terminating circuit has buffers to produce wider voltage drives on clamping transistors. A transmission line drives coupling capacitors. One capacitor drives an upper node that drives the gate of an upper buffer transistor. The upper buffer transistor drives a p-gate node coupled to a gate of a p-channel clamping transistor. The other capacitor drives a lower node that drives the gate of a lower buffer transistor, which drives an n-gate node of an n-channel clamping transistor. The drains of the clamping transistors are connected to the transmission line. Resistors pull the lower node to the power-supply voltage and pull the upper node to ground when no transitions occur on the transmission line, achieving zero standby power. When a transition is detected, it is coupled through the capacitors and buffered to the p-gate and n-gate nodes. Limiting transistors limit upper and lower node swings.