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. 27, 2004
Filed:
Aug. 24, 2001
Jeffrey Alma West, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Eindhoven, NL;
Abstract
The invention provides an improved high speed voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) buffer cell, with consistent output performance. According to one embodiment of the invention, the cell comprises a differential pair of transistors and a current mirror circuit. The differential pair has input terminals for receiving input signals and output terminals for providing differential voltage swing in response to the input signals. The current mirror circuit is operably coupled to the pair of transistors and is configured to receive a first external reference current and provide a mirrored current to an active one of the transistors. The differential voltage swing has a frequency which is determined based on the reference current. In a specific embodiment of the invention, the pair of transistors of the cell is bipolar transistors, and the current mirror circuit is composed of CMOS transistors.