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:
Jan. 21, 2003
Filed:
Mar. 15, 2001
Applicant:
Inventors:
George M Braceras, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Steven Burns, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Patrick R. Hansen, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Harold Pilo, Underhill, VT (US);
Assignee:
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H03K 1/90175 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H03K 1/90175 ;
Abstract
Disclosed is a programmable impedance driver that includes two sets of impedance devices, two primary counters and two test counters. The primary counters selectively activate individual ones of the impedance devices to vary an overall impedance of the driver and the test counters verify the counting operation of the primary counters during manufacturing testing of the driver. Therefore, the built-in self-test (BIST) aspect of the invention easily detects if one of the counters will become stuck during normal usage.