Low power oscillator circuits
AssigneeMoore Products Co.
InventorRaymond H. Kohler
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Low power oscillator circuits for providing clock signals. The circuits comprise crystal oscillators for providing an input wave form of a specified frequency to the clock circuit, square wave generators having at least two input terminals wherein one of the two input terminals is coupled to the oscillator, and a power output network coupled to the square wave generator for outputting a substantially square wave having substantially the same frequency as the input wave form, the power output network being biased at a high voltage level. Clock circuits described herein provide the advantage of low power oscillation with little power dissipation.
Claims22
A clock circuit comprising:
- resonator means for providing an input waveform of a specified frequency to the clock circuit;
- generator means biased at a first voltage having at least two input terminals wherein one of the two input terminals is coupled to the resonator means for producing a substantially square wave output having a square frequency corresponding substantially to the input waveform frequency;
- and
- power output means coupled to the generator means for outputting a substantially square wave having substantially the same frequency as the input waveform, the power output means being biased at a higher voltage level than the generator means, such that the power output means is biased at the ned of its biased range.
A parallel oscillator comprising:
- crystal resonator means for producing an oscillating excitation signal at a frequency;
- square wave generating means in parallel with the crystal resonator means for producing a square wave voltage having a frequency substantially the same as the frequency of the crystal resonator means;
- basing means for biasing the square wave generating means;
- and
- output means adapted to receive the square wave voltage output from the square wave generating means and biased to a first voltage level by the biasing means for outputting a square voltage wave at substantially the same frequency as the crystal resonator means, wherein the biasing means drives the output means to the end of the output means biased range, thereby producing a low output power voltage waveform.
A method of producing an oscillatory voltage output comprising the steps of:
- exciting a first oscillatory voltage signal having a first frequency;
- generating a square wave voltage signal in response to the first oscillatory voltage signal, the square wave voltage having substantially the same first frequency;
- biasing an output amplifier to the end o fits biased range with a direct current biasing voltage;
- and
- driving the output amplifier with the square wave voltage, such that an output voltage has substantially the first frequency.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.