Semiconductor device including a pulse amplitude modulation driver
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsPaul Ranucci, Alan Roth
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Abstract
Devices and methods are described herein for a pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) driver. In one embodiment, the PAM driver includes a first high-speed buffer configured to output a first voltage, a second high-speed buffer configured to output a second voltage, and a plurality of transistors coupled to the first high-speed buffer and the second high-speed buffer. At least one of the first voltage or the second voltage facilitates selective operation of a transistor of the plurality of transistors to output a third voltage.
Claims20
A semiconductor device comprising:
- a first high-speed buffer configured to output a first voltage;
- a first pre-positioning circuit configured to provide the first high-speed buffer a first reference voltage;
- a second high-speed buffer configured to output a second voltage;
- a second pre-positioning circuit configured to provide the second high-speed buffer a second reference voltage different from the first reference voltage;
- and
- a plurality of transistors coupled to the first high-speed buffer and the second high-speed buffer, wherein at least one of the first voltage or the second voltage facilitates selective operation of a transistor of the plurality of transistors to output a third voltage.
A method comprising:
- providing, by a first pre-positioning circuit, a first reference voltage to a first high-speed buffer;
- providing, by a second pre-positioning circuit, a second reference voltage different from the first reference voltage to a second high-speed buffer;
- receiving, by a plurality of transistors, a first voltage from the first high-speed buffer or a second voltage from the second high-speed buffer;
- selectively operating a transistor of the plurality of transistors based on either the first voltage or the second voltage;
- and
- outputting a third voltage based on operation of the transistor.
A pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) driver comprising:
- a first high-speed buffer configured to output a first voltage;
- a first pre-positioning circuit configured to provide the first high-speed buffer a first reference voltage;
- a second high-speed buffer configured to output a second voltage;
- a second pre-positioning circuit configured to provide the second high-speed buffer a second reference voltage different from the first reference voltage;
- a first transistor coupled to the first high-speed buffer;
- a second transistor coupled to the second high-speed buffer,
- wherein at least one of the first voltage or the second voltage facilitates selective operation of a transistor of a plurality of transistors to output a third voltage equivalent to either the first voltage or the second voltage for intermediate states of a PAM signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.