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US 6,621,331 B2Granted
Variable negative resistance cell for bipolar integrated circuits
AssigneeHRL Laboratories, LLC
InventorsCarl W. Pobanz, Gopal Raghavan
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Abstract
An effective means and apparatus for generating a negative resistance including a circuit element that exhibits an increase in current as the applied voltage is decreased. Other embodiments of the present invention provide electronic means for improving the quality Q factor of on-chip resonators, which enables the creation of high-performance bipolar RF circuits with a minimum of external components.
Claims21
A bipolar transistor circuit comprising;
- i. a variable transconductance cell connected with positive feedback to generate a negative resistance at the bipolar transistor circuit's output terminals;
- and
- ii. a circuit element that exhibits an increase in current as an applied voltage is decreased, the circuit element connected with the variable transconductance cell to provide a resistance to adjust a differential transconductance of the transconductance cell.
A method for producing a bipolar transistor circuit comprising the steps of;
- i. generating a two-terminal negative resistance;
- and
- ii. generating a negative resistance across a bipolar transistor circuit's output terminals using a variable transconductance cell connected with positive feedback;
- and
- iii. producing an adjustable negative resistance ranging from a minimum to essentially negative infinity.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.