POWER SWITCH WITH REVERSE CURRENT BLOCKING CAPABILITY
First Claim
1. A reverse current blocking (RCB) circuit comprising:
- a first transistor having a first current carrying terminal coupled to a first input terminal of the RCB circuit and a second current carrying terminal coupled to a first node;
a first charge pump operative to supply a first voltage signal to a gate terminal of the first transistor in response to a reference voltage;
a second transistor having a first current carrying terminal coupled to an output terminal of the RCB circuit, and a second current carrying terminal coupled to the first node;
a second charge pump operative to supply a second voltage signal to a gate terminal of the second transistor in response to a feedback signal; and
an amplifier having a first input terminal receiving the output voltage of the RCB circuit, and a second input terminal receiving a voltage defined by a voltage of the first node and an offset voltage, said amplifier supplying the feedback signal to the second charge pump.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A switching circuit controls the flow of current between its input and output in accordance with the state of a control signal applied to the circuit. When the control signal is in a first state and the voltage applied to the input is higher than the voltage at the output, the circuit provides a low resistance path between its input and output terminals thereby enabling current to flow from the input to the output. When the control signal is in the first state and the voltage at the output is higher than the voltage at the input, the circuit inhibits current flow from the output to the input. When the control signal is in a second state, the circuit is turned off thus inhibiting current flow between the input and the output.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A reverse current blocking (RCB) circuit comprising:
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a first transistor having a first current carrying terminal coupled to a first input terminal of the RCB circuit and a second current carrying terminal coupled to a first node; a first charge pump operative to supply a first voltage signal to a gate terminal of the first transistor in response to a reference voltage; a second transistor having a first current carrying terminal coupled to an output terminal of the RCB circuit, and a second current carrying terminal coupled to the first node; a second charge pump operative to supply a second voltage signal to a gate terminal of the second transistor in response to a feedback signal; and an amplifier having a first input terminal receiving the output voltage of the RCB circuit, and a second input terminal receiving a voltage defined by a voltage of the first node and an offset voltage, said amplifier supplying the feedback signal to the second charge pump. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A circuit comprising:
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a charge pump adapted to supply current to a gate terminal of an MOS transistor; a current sense circuit adapted to sense a current flowing through a drain terminal of the MOS transistor and to generate a sense signal in response; and a discharge circuit adapted to discharge current from the gate terminal of the MOS transistor, said discharge current being defined by a difference between the sense signal and a reference signal such that the discharge current increases non-linearly as said difference increases and said discharge current decrease non-linearly when said difference decreases. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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19. A switching circuit comprising:
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first and second transistors disposed between input and output terminals of the switching circuit; a first voltage multiplier generating a first intermediate signal that is a multiple of an analog feedback signal in response to a first phase of a clock signal, said first analog signal having a range defined by first and second supply voltages; a second voltage multiplier generating a second intermediate signal that is a multiple of the analog feedback signal in response to a second non-overlapping phase of the clock signal; and a coupling circuit selectively applying one of the intermediate signals in response to opposite phases of the clock signal to a pair of terminals of at least one of the first and second transistors so as maintain conductive path between the input and output terminals of the switching circuit when the voltage of the input terminal is higher than the voltage of the output terminal, and further to turn off the conduction path between the input and output terminals of the switching circuit when the voltage of the input terminal is smaller than the voltage of the output terminal.
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20. Two voltage multipliers clocked by opposite phases of a clock signal, each multiplying an analog input signal changing between the ground and a supply voltage level by a predefined multiplication factor and generating two intermediate signals;
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a coupler circuit selectively coupling each one of the intermediate signals on opposite phases of the clock signal between two output terminals, thereby maintaining a continuous-time signal path from the input to the output.
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21. A multiplier circuit comprising:
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a first transistor having a source terminal receiving the feedback voltage, a gate terminal receiving the third non-overlapping pulse signal, and a drain terminal coupled to a first terminal of a first capacitive element, said first transistor being an NMOS transistor; a second transistor having a source terminal receiving the feedback voltage, a gate terminal receiving the second non-overlapping pulse signal, and a drain terminal coupled to a second terminal of the first capacitive element, said second transistor being a PMOS transistor; a third transistor having a drain terminal receiving the feedback voltage, a gate terminal receiving the sixth non-overlapping pulse signal, and a source terminal coupled to the second terminal of the first capacitive element, said third transistor being an NMOS transistor; a fourth transistor having a drain terminal coupled to the second terminal of the first capacitive element, a source terminal coupled to first supply voltage, and a gate terminal receiving the fifth non-overlapping pulse signal, said fourth transistor being an NMOS transistor; a fifth transistor having a source terminal coupled to the first terminal of the first capacitive element, a gate terminal receiving the feedback voltage, and a drain terminal supplying the fourth voltage signal;
said fifth transistor being a PMOS transistor;a sixth transistor having a drain terminal coupled to the first terminal of the first capacitive element, a gate terminal receiving the fourth non-overlapping pulse signal, and a source terminal supplying the fourth voltage signal;
said sixth transistor being an NMOS transistor; anda seventh transistor having a drain terminal supplying the fourth voltage signal, a source terminal coupled to first supply voltage, and a gate terminal receiving the fifth non-overlapping pulse signal, said seventh transistor being an NMOS transistor.
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Specification