Driver circuit
AssigneeRambus Inc.
InventorsManish JAIN, Navin Kumar Mishra
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A driver circuit includes pull-up and pull-down drivers driven by separate pre-drivers operating between different voltage rails. Data signals driving the pull-up driver and the pull-down driver are synchronized, and the pull-up driver and the pull-down driver are coupled together to produce an output signal having a voltage swing based on both the pull-up driver and the pull-down driver.
Claims35
A driver circuit comprising:
- a pull-up driver operating within a first voltage swing range;
- a pull-down driver operating within a second voltage swing range that is not coterminal with the first voltage swing range,
- wherein data signals driving the pull-up driver and the pull-down driver are synchronized, and the pull-up driver and the pull-down driver are coupled together to produce an output signal having a voltage swing based on both the pull-up driver and the pull-down driver.
A driver circuit comprising:
- a pull-up pre-driver coupled to a pull-up driver;
- a pull-down pre-driver coupled to a pull-down driver, wherein the pull-down pre-driver receives a second data signal and outputs the second data signal to the pull-down driver;
- and
- a synchronization capacitor coupled to outputs of the pull-up and pull-down pre-drivers, the synchronization capacitor synchronizing data signals output from the pull-up and pull-down pre-drivers to the pull-up and pull-down drivers.
A memory controller to provided output signals on a signaling bus having plural constituent lines, the memory controller comprising a driver for each line, the driver characterized by:
- a pull-up driver operating within a first voltage swing range;
- a pull-down driver operating within a second voltage swing range that is not coterminal with the first voltage swing range,
- wherein data signals driving the pull-up driver and the pull-down driver are synchronized, and the pull-up driver and the pull-down driver are coupled together to produce an output signal having a voltage swing based on both the pull-up driver and the pull-down driver.
A method of providing synchronized data signals carrying the same data to first and second drivers, the method comprising:
- providing a first data circuit with a first clock signal oscillating between oscillating within a first voltage swing range;
- and
- providing a second data circuit with a second clock signal oscillating within a second voltage swing range that is not coterminal with the first voltage swing range, wherein the first and second clock signals are synchronized;
- outputting a first data signal from the first data circuit to a first pre-driver responsive to the first clock signal;
- outputting a second data signal from the second data circuit to a second pre-driver responsive to the second clock signal, wherein the first and second data signals carry the same data and are synchronized;
- outputting the first and second synchronized data signals to first and second drivers from the first and second pre-drivers;
- and
- correcting skew of the first and second synchronized data signals output from the first and second pre-drivers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.