US 2014/0176222 A1Published application

Signal receiver and signal transmission apparatus

AssigneeSemiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) Corporation

InventorsKaven Zhu, Jason Chen, Allen Mo

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Abstract

A signal receiver includes first and second bias circuits that receive an input signal and convert the input signal to respective first and second bias signals. The signal receiver also includes a first inverter comprising a PMOS device and an NMOS device, each device has a source, a drain, and a gate. When the voltage magnitude of the first bias signal is smaller than that of the input signal, the gate of the PMOS device is coupled to the first bias signal and the gate of the NMOS device is coupled to the input signal. When the voltage magnitude of the first bias signal is greater than that of the input signal, the gate of the NMOS device is coupled to the first bias signal and the gate of the PMOS device is coupled to the input signal.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A signal receiver comprising:

a first bias circuit having a first input terminal configured to receive an input signal and to convert the received input signal to a first bias signal, wherein a voltage amplitude of the first bias signal is different from a voltage amplitude of the input signal;
a first inverter coupled to the first bias circuit, the first inverter comprising a PMOS device and an NMOS device, each of the PMOS and NMOS devices having a gate, a source, and a drain, the source of the PMOS device coupled to a power supply voltage, the source of the NMOS device coupled to a ground, the drains of the PMOS and NMOS devices being coupled together forming a first node, the gate of the PMOS and NMOS devices being coupled to either the input signal or to the first bias signal in response to the voltage amplitude of the first bias signal;
and
a second inverter coupled to the first node.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.