A self-terminating low-voltage swing CMOS output driver

Author

Knight, Thomas F., Jr. ; Krymm, Alexander

Author_Institution

Symbolics Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA

Volume

23

Issue

2

fYear

1988

fDate

4/1/1988 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

457

Lastpage

464

Abstract

A CMOS output pad driver circuit is described that automatically series-terminates a driven line in the line´s characteristic impedance. The circuit has advantages in speed, power, and size over conventional designs. The key idea is the use of emitter-coupled logic (ECL) compatible low-voltage swings for signaling, combined with the use of the driver transistor as both a switch and as a termination resistor. An on-chip measurement circuit dynamically adjusts the impedance of the driver to match the impedance of an external reference impedance standard, allowing the circuit to compensate for both chip and board level fabrication variations

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; impedance matching; integrated circuit technology; CMOS output driver; CMOS output pad driver circuit; ECL; automatic impedance matching; automatically series-terminates; characteristic impedance; driver transistor; emitter-coupled logic; external reference impedance standard; low-voltage swing; on-chip measurement circuit; termination resistor; CMOS logic circuits; Driver circuits; Fabrication; Impedance measurement; Integrated circuit interconnections; Inverters; Logic design; Measurement standards; Power transmission lines; Resistors; Semiconductor device measurement; Switches;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/4.1007

Filename

1007