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. 08, 2006
Filed:
Mar. 04, 2004
Khai Nguyen, San Jose, CA (US);
Chiakang Sung, Milpitas, CA (US);
Gopi Rangan, Milpitas, CA (US);
Tzung-chin Chang, San Jose, CA (US);
Khai Nguyen, San Jose, CA (US);
Chiakang Sung, Milpitas, CA (US);
Gopi Rangan, Milpitas, CA (US);
Tzung-Chin Chang, San Jose, CA (US);
Altera Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
Circuits, methods, and apparatus that provide output drivers that consume relatively little integrated circuit area and provide fast output switching. An exemplary embodiment provides an output driver including pull-up and pull-down devices, each device driven by a pre-driver stage. The pre-driver for the pull-down device is supplied from an auxiliary power supply, which has a higher voltage than the supply seen by the pull-up device. The pre-driver for the pull-down is biased by a voltage that tracks the higher of the auxiliary and output supplies. In some embodiments, the output driver may be part of an input/output cell. In that case, the well for the pull-up device is biased by a voltage that tracks the highest of the output supply and input received voltage, while the pull-up predriver circuit bias is the higher between the auxiliary and output supplies and the input received voltage.