Gate coupled voltage support for an output driver circuit
AssigneeMicron Technology, Inc.
InventorsBrian W. Huber, David Lisenbe
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for supporting a voltage in an output driver circuit and smoothing the response of the voltage to switching operations in the output driver circuit. A capacitive element is coupled to the gate of a drive transistor in an output driver leg circuit of an output driver and to a switched signal voltage. By coupling the capacitive element to a signal voltage other than ground, a smaller capacitive element is required than that required for coupling the capacitive element to ground. An embodiment of the invention further includes a plurality of capacitive elements configured such that the voltage support is applied to the gate of the drive transistor in phases rather than all at once to smooth voltage response to drive transistor switching.
Claims11
An output driver circuit having at least one output driver leg circuit associated therewith, the at least one output driver leg circuit comprising:
- at least one drive transistor;
- at least one switching transistor coupled to both the at least one drive transistor and at least a first voltage signal line;
- and
- a plurality of compensating circuits coupled to a gate of the at least one drive transistor and to at least a second voltage signal line configured to reference a voltage signal potential other than ground in a corresponding plurality of phases.
A support circuit for smoothing a response of a voltage on a gate of a drive transistor of an output driver circuit, comprising:
- a first support element for coupling to the gate of the drive transistor and to at least one switching voltage, the first support element responsive to the at least one switching voltage during a first phase;
- and
- a second support element coupled to the first support element and the at least one switching voltage, the second support element responsive to the at least one switching voltage during a second phase subsequent to the first phase.
An electronic system comprising:
- a processor;
- and
- at least one of an input device, an output device, a memory device and a data storage device associated with the processor;
- wherein at least one component of the electronic system comprises an output driver circuit including a drive transistor having a support circuit associated therewith, the support circuit including:
- a first support element for coupling to a gate of the drive transistor and to at least one switching voltage, the first support element responsive to the at least one switching voltage during a first phase;
- and
- a second support element coupled to the first support element and the at least one switching voltage, the second support element responsive to the at least one switching voltage during a second phase subsequent to said first phase.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.