Circuit, method and system for generating a non-linear transfer characteristic
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics Asia Pacific Pte Ltd
InventorsEric Yves Serge Cirot, Sze Kwang Tan, Mallikarjuna Rao Padala
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A circuit, method and system for generating a non-linear transfer characteristic, including a plurality of current mirror circuits in parallel, each current mirror circuit having an offset current applied to an output terminal of an output-side transistor of the current mirror circuit for controlling an output current thereof, wherein the offset current of each current mirror circuit is set to a respective predetermined level, and the transfer characteristic is generated by summing the respective output currents of the current mirror circuits in a piece-wise manner.
Claims31
A circuit for generating a non-linear transfer characteristic, comprising:
- a plurality of current mirror sub-circuits operating in parallel within the circuit, each current mirror sub-circuit configured to have an offset current applied to an output terminal of an output-side transistor of the current mirror sub-circuit for determining an output current of the current mirror sub-circuit, each current mirror sub-circuit configured to have an offset current set at a respective predetermined level, and the transfer characteristic defined by the sum of the respective output currents of the current mirror sub-circuits.
A method for generating a non-linear transfer characteristic, including the steps of:
- providing a circuit having a plurality of current mirror sub-circuits operating in parallel within the circuit, and configuring each current mirror sub-circuit to have an offset current applied to an output terminal of an output-side transistor of the current mirror sub-circuit for determining an output current of the current mirror sub-circuit;
- and
- generating the transfer characteristic by setting the offset current of each current mirror sub-circuit at respective predetermined levels and summing the respective output currents of the current mirror sub-circuits.
A system for generating a non-linear transfer characteristic, comprising:
- a plurality of current mirror circuits in parallel, each current mirror circuit configured to have an offset current applied to an output terminal of an output-side transistor of the current mirror circuit for controlling an output current thereof, the offset current of each current mirror circuit is set to a respective predetermined level, whereby the transfer characteristic is generated by summing the respective output currents of the current mirror circuits.
A system for generating a non-linear transfer characteristic, the system comprising:
- a plurality of current mirror circuits coupled in parallel, each current mirror circuit comprising:
- a first transistor having a collector terminal coupled to a first current source, a control terminal coupled to the collector terminal, and an emitter terminal coupled to a first terminal of an input resistor;
- a second transistor having a collector terminal coupled to a second current source, a control terminal coupled to the control terminal of the first transistor, and an emitter terminal coupled to a first terminal of an output resistor, the output resistor having a second terminal coupled to a second terminal of the input resistor;
- and
- an offset current source having an output coupled to the emitter terminal of the second transistor, the current mirror circuit having a transfer characteristic that is modulated by the offset current from the offset current source.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.