Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices – circuits – and – Specific signal discriminating without subsequent control – By amplitude
Patent
1996-04-12
1997-12-16
Tran, Toan
Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices, circuits, and
Specific signal discriminating without subsequent control
By amplitude
327 54, 327 52, G01R 1900
Patent
active
056989989
ABSTRACT:
Small voltage changes on a highly capacitive signal are sensed rapidly by placing a shielding impedance between the signal to be sensed and the input to a regenerative sense circuit. A regenerative sense circuit has a sense amplifier which controls a switching means that is connected to the input to the sense amplifier. When the output of the sense amplifier reaches a threshold value, it turns the switching means on. This switching means increases the rate of change on the input to the sense amplifier which causes the switching means to turn on even more. The input and output of the sense amplifier are able to switch more rapidly because the shielding impedance allows the switching means to change the state of the input to the sense amplifier without having to completely change the voltage level on the highly capacitive input signal. A small voltage difference between two signals is sensed by two cross-coupled, actively loaded, NMOS inverters. A regenerative effect is achieved by switching means which increase the voltage difference between the bias voltages of the NMOS inverters. The switching means are turned on when the voltage difference between the outputs of the NMOS inverters reach a threshold value. Impedances are added between the bias voltages of the NMOS inverters and the input signals so that the switching means may achieve the regenerative effect without having to completely change the voltage on the large capacitance of the signals to be sensed.
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Hewlett-Packard Co.
Neudeck Alexander J.
Tran Toan
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