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. 30, 2011
Filed:
Oct. 06, 2009
Jason Allen Wortham, Fremont, CA (US);
Urs H. Mader, Cupertino, CA (US);
Yi-chang Hsieh, San Jose, CA (US);
Jason Allen Wortham, Fremont, CA (US);
Urs H. Mader, Cupertino, CA (US);
Yi-Chang Hsieh, San Jose, CA (US);
Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
I2C/SMBus ladders and ladder enabled ICs (devices) to enable daisy-chained I2C/SMBus communication. The devices are particularly useful in monitoring and/or servicing high-voltage battery stacks and other voltage stacks. The devices are powered from a respective voltage increment in the voltage stack, and include level shifting circuitry so as to be operative with an input voltage up to the breakdown voltage of the level shifting circuitry. Various features are disclosed, including but not limited to a unique data line drive, capacitive coupling between devices in a daisy chain with line clamps for circuitry protection and capacitive coupling charge wiping, and clock stretching to accommodate chain latency.