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. 19, 2010
Filed:
Jun. 01, 2007
Rohit Kumar, San Jose, CA (US);
Emerson S. Fang, Fremont, CA (US);
Rohit Kumar, San Jose, CA (US);
Emerson S. Fang, Fremont, CA (US);
GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Inc., Grand Cayman, KY;
Abstract
A driver circuit that consumes less current than other driver circuits combines a current-mode driver circuit with a voltage-mode driver circuit to provide impedance matching and signal equalization operations. In at least one embodiment of the invention, an apparatus includes a differential node and a driver circuit configured to generate a signal on the differential node. The driver circuit includes a first circuit portion configured to generate a first signal on the differential node based, at least in part, on a data signal. The first signal has a voltage swing based, at least in part, on a voltage on a power supply node. The driver circuit includes at least a second circuit portion configured to generate a current through the differential node based, at least in part, on a first bit-time of the data signal and an equalization operation, thereby adjusting the voltage swing of the signal.