Patent · US Expired

5V tolerant I/O buffer

US6043680A · kind A · utility

10Cited by
12References
13Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 2, 1998
Grant dateMar 28, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 2, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03K19/00315
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A circuit and a method are disclosed to provide a tristate input/output buffer which is compatible with 5 volt input signals, applied to its output node, while operating with a 3 volt power supply. This is achieved by inserting an extra p-channel transistor in series with the existing p-channel transistor. The extra p-channel transistor and its parasitic diode are wired so that they will not conduct, i.e. the extra transistor is off and the parasitic diode is back-biased, when a 5 volt input signal is applied to the output of the tristate input/output buffer. Two additional transistors are used to control the on/off state of the extra p-channel transistor.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.