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US 8,149,044 B2Granted
Trimmer circuit and method
AssigneeRichtek Technology Corporation
InventorChia-Wei Liao
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A trimmer circuit is so configured that an electronic device will break down to produce a high current to trim a fuse. The electronic device is selectively configured to have a breakdown voltage lower than an applied voltage, for the trigger of its breakdown to be controllable. In an embodiment, the electronic device is switched between two states having two breakdown voltages respectively, and the applied voltage is higher than one of the breakdown voltages and lower than the other one.
Claims2
A trimmer method for selectively trimming a fuse, comprising the steps of:
- establishing an operational mode of a bipolar junction transistor by selectively setting a base of the bipolar junction transistor to be grounded or open circuit;
- triggering a breakdown region in the bipolar junction transistor having the base set to be open circuit to produce a current;
- and
- supplying the current to the fuse to trim the fuse.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.