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:
Jul. 28, 2009
Filed:
May. 05, 2004
Hidehiko Suzuki, Tokyo, JP;
Hidenori Kobayashi, Tokyo, JP;
Nicky Miles Johnson, Los Altos, CA (US);
National Semiconductor Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method is disclosed for minimizing power consumption in a reference voltage circuit. A capacitor is coupled to a reference voltage circuit and charged to a voltage that equals the reference voltage of the reference voltage circuit. The capacitor is then decoupled from the reference voltage circuit and power to the reference voltage circuit is turned off. The capacitor then provides the capacitor voltage to other circuits as a reference voltage. After a selected period of time has elapsed since the capacitor was last charged to the reference voltage, the reference voltage circuit is turned on and the capacitor is again coupled to the reference voltage circuit. The reference voltage circuit then recharges the capacitor to the reference voltage level. This process is repeated to periodically charge the capacitor to the reference voltage.