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:
Oct. 10, 2006
Filed:
Sep. 29, 2004
Peter R. Holloway, Groveland, MA (US);
Jun Wan, Wilmington, MA (US);
Peter R. Holloway, Groveland, MA (US);
Jun Wan, Wilmington, MA (US);
National Semiconductor Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A dual-channel instrumentation amplifier includes two channels of PMOS transistor differential pairs which are configured in a Y-connection and cross-coupled to two diode-connected NMOS transistors. Each input channel has a non-linear voltage-current characteristic. But when the differential currents cancel at the NMOS transistor diodes, both input channels have the same differential input voltage, regardless of any non-linearity. As thus configured, a high accuracy instrumentation amplifier which operates in current mode is realized with excellent DC matching and high common mode rejection ratio. In one embodiment, the dual-channel instrumentation amplifier is used as input stage for the linear comparator to enable the linear comparator to operate at a high rate of speed with excellent channel matching.