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:
May. 21, 2013
Filed:
Aug. 12, 2010
Frank Van Der Goes, Bunnik, NL;
Christopher Ward, Zutphen, NL;
Ovidiu Bajdechi, San Jose, CA (US);
Erol Arslan, Bunnik, NL;
Frank Van Der Goes, Bunnik, NL;
Christopher Ward, Zutphen, NL;
Ovidiu Bajdechi, San Jose, CA (US);
Erol Arslan, Bunnik, NL;
Broadcom Corporation, Irvine, CA (US);
Abstract
An output stage comprising a current mode line driver, a voltage mode line driver, and a center-tapped transformer for coupling data provided by the line drivers to a transmission line is provided herein. The output stage is configured to operate in a backwards compatible Ethernet communication device. For example, the Ethernet communication device is configured to support 10G Ethernet and legacy Ethernet modes of 10BASE-T, 100BASE-T, and 1000BASE-T. The current mode line driver can be utilized while operating in the 10G Ethernet mode to provide high linearity. The voltage mode line driver can be utilized while operating in legacy mode to conserve power. In order to accommodate the use of two different line drivers, a switch and/or a voltage regulator is used to couple/decouple a dc voltage to a center-tap of the transformer based on which of the two different line drivers is currently active.