Patent · US Active

High speed, wide frequency-range, digital phase mixer and methods of operation

US8437726B2 · kind B2 · utility

3Cited by
7References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 4, 2011
Grant dateMay 7, 2013
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 2, 2031

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03L7/0814
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to a unit phase mixer in combination with an input buffer. The unit phase mixer has a pull-up path for pulling an output terminal up to a first voltage. The pull-up path has a first transistor responsive to a first enable signal and a series connected second transistor responsive to a first clock signal. The unit phase mixer has a pull-down path for pulling the output terminal down to a second voltage. The pull-down path has a third transistor responsive to a second clock signal and a series connected fourth transistor responsive to a second enable signal. The input buffer skews the first and second clock signals by different amounts to enable a break-before-make method of operation so that the first voltage is not connected to the second voltage. The unit phase mixer can be used as a building block in more complex mixers which may include the ability to weight the input clocks as well as providing feed-forward paths for certain of the signals. Because of the rules governing abstract, this abstract should not be used to construe the claims.

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