This invention is related to sensing circuits. More particularly, this invention relates to sensing circuit for interfacing CMOS switching circuits powered at two different voltage levels.
A level shifting circuit is one with one portion of the circuit operating off one supply level while the other operates off a different supply level. An example of such a level switching circuit is one that links peripheral circuits which have a supply level of 1.8 volts to core circuits which operate at a 1.2 volts nominal. Therefore in this case, the front end of the receiver receives signals generated by circuits operating at the peripheral supply and provides outputs to circuits which operate with the core supply level which is lower than the peripheral supply level. Standard level shifters are very slow. This is because the capacitive loads of the CMOS devices in the receiving circuit are hard to shift from one operating state to another operating state but also to the systems that are the CMOS devices. As the operating speed of CMOS circuits has increased, the capacitive nature of the CMOS devices in the CMOS circuits has been an impediment to not only rapid operation of level shifting circuits. Further, most prior art level shifters provide an asymmetric output.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide a higher speed level shifting circuit.
A further object of the invention is to provide a high speed level shifting circuit with an symmetric output.
Another object of the invention is to provide a circuit capable of switching large voltages rapidly.
In accordance with the present invention rapid switching is provided by a circuit that controls the current passing through a chain of CMOS devices arranged in a series circuit. A node input terminal to the circuit is provided intermediate the chain to control the operating state of two serially connected CMOS devices. Voltages at the input terminal sets one or the other of the serially connected devices in the current conducting state. That state is a partially conducting state of the device so that small changes in the current path allows a quick transfer of the operation state to the other device. With this arrangement, charging and discharging of large capacitances is avoided by using small current changes to rapidly switch between operating states.
All devices shown in the drawings are metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFET or CMOS devices). The devices with an “0” at their gates are N-gate devices. the others are P-gate devices.
Referring to
The operating state of the input stage 100 is controlled by the REN voltage applied to terminal 114 and the RENN voltage applied to terminal 116. To hold the input stage 100 in its inoperative state, the REN voltage at terminal 114 is set to zero while the RENN voltage at terminal 116 is set to 1.8 volts. This turns off device 118 and 120 while turning on devices 124 and 126. This turns off device 102 and reduces the voltage at node 122 to near ground turning off devices 108 and 110 so that the input stage 100 is not powered and its output at terminal 112 is indeterminate.
To activate the input stage 100, the voltages at terminals 114 and 116 are reversed. With the REN voltage at terminal 114 at the up state of 1.8 volts, and the RENN voltage at terminal 116 is in down state or zero volts, devices 118 and 120 are biased conductive. With devices 118 and 120 conducting device 102 conducts powering up the input stage. With the input stage powered, the voltage at ZO/Z1 determines the state of devices 110 and 102. With ZO up and Z1 down, 104 and 102 conduct so that the voltage at 122 is down holding devices 108 and 110 off so that the voltage at point 112 is up, as previously stated. When Z1 is up and ZO is down, device 106 conducts allowing the voltage at point 122 to rise turning on devices 108 and 110 thus lowering the voltage at point 112.
The output at terminal 112 is provided to the gates of devices 128 and 130 in the transitional stage 131 of the receiver. The transitional stage 131 operates on both the 1.8 and 1.2 voltage sources. Like the input stage REN and RENN, voltages control the operating state of the transitional stage 131. In the case of the transitional stage, the REN and RENN voltages vary between 1.2 and zero volts instead of between 1.8 and zero volts. With RENN at 1.2 volts and REN at 0 volts, the intermediate stage is non-responsive to the voltage at node 112. The intermediate stage output node 142 is held at 0 volts by the biasing of devices 132 and 134 nonconductive and device 141 conductive by the 112 volts at terminal 133 and devices 136 and 138 off by the zero volts at terminal 137. To activate the intermediate stage 131 of the receiver, the voltages at terminals 133 and 137 are reversed. That is, with zero volts at terminal 133 and 1.2 volts at terminal, the voltage at point 112 determines the operation of devices 128 and 130 which in turn controls the current running through devices 132, 134, 136 and 138 that in response provides an output at terminal 142. With 112 down, 128 is nonconductive while 130 is conductive. With 130 conductive, the voltage at point 140 is raised turning off device 136 and raising the voltage at node 142. Alternatively if the voltage level at 112 is down, device 128 conducts reducing the voltage at point 144 turning on device 132 and raising the voltage at point 142.
The voltage at point 142 controls operation of devices 150 and 152 in the output stage 158. As better shown in
Devices 154 and 156 constitute driver stage 158 which increases the size of the signal at point 153. Devices 150 and 152 constitute one inverter stage while devices 154 and 156 constitute another inverter stage so that there is no change in polarity between the signal at 142 and that provided at the output 160.
One embodiment of the invention has been described. Variations of this embodiment may be apparent to those skilled in the art. For instance, the switching technique described in connection with the intermediate stage may be applicable to circuits other than level shifters. Therefore it should be understood that the invention is not limited to the described embodiment but should be interpreted in terms of the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
U.S. Pat. No. ______ issued ______ and entitled “______” is hereby incorporated by reference.