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:
Aug. 13, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 06, 2000
Randolph B. Heineke, Rochester, MN (US);
Scott Allen Olson, Rochester, MN (US);
David Peter Swart, Pine Island, MN (US);
Gerald Wayne Swift, Rolling Hills Estates, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A fully balanced transimpedance amplifier for high speed and low voltage applications is provided. An input stage of the amplifier uses a matched pair of common source connected transistors with sources tied directly to ground to eliminate the Vds overhead usually found in differential pairs. The ground connection minimizes a source resistance noise component, while matching minimizes power supply noise generation and susceptibility for an array of amplifiers. Feedback resistors along with diode connected MESFETS determine the transimpedance of the amplifier. The nonlinearity of diodes helps to soften clipping. Transresistance also determined the noise generated by the amplifier, and the diode connected MESFETS offer lower noise than resistors for the same impedance. Stability is achieved through use of only a single stage of gain in a loop of the input stage, while additional gain is achieved through cascading in the input stage. A differential stage minimizes any difference in amplitude between two sides of the amplifier input stage. Two stages of source followers provide buffering to drive a relatively low impedance load at the output of the amplifier. Single integrated capacitor coupling, for high bandwidth, low noise, low voltage operation with an integrated detector is provided.