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. 30, 2012
Filed:
Nov. 23, 2011
Scott C. Mcleod, Oro Valley, AZ (US);
Scott C. McLeod, Oro Valley, AZ (US);
Standard Microsystems Corporation, Hauppauge, NY (US);
Abstract
A switched-capacitor circuit on a semiconductor device may include accurately matched, high-density metal-to-metal capacitors, using top-plate-to-bottom-plate fringe-capacitance for obtaining the desired capacitance values. A polysilicon plate may be inserted below the bottom metal layer, and bootstrapped to the top plate of each capacitor in order to minimize and/or eliminate the parasitic top-plate-to-substrate capacitance. This may free up the bottom metal layer to be used in forming additional fringe-capacitance, thereby increasing capacitance density. By forming each capacitance solely based on fringe-capacitance from the top plate to the bottom plate, no parallel-plate-capacitance is used, which may reduce capacitor mismatch. Parasitic bottom plate capacitance to the substrate may also be eliminated, with only a small capacitance to the bootstrapped polysilicon plate remaining The capacitors may be bootstrapped by coupling the top plate of each capacitor to a respective one of the differential inputs of an amplifier comprised in the switched-capacitor circuit.