Teradyne, Inc.
VOLTAGE DRIVER CIRCUIT

Abstract:

Disclosed herein are voltage driver circuits and methods of operating the same. In some embodiments, a plurality of circuit slices are provided in a voltage driver circuit, each circuit slice has a time constant, and is controlled to switchably connect a driver output to either a high voltage level or a low voltage level, or to disconnect the driver output from both voltage levels. The circuit slices may provide an adjustable output impedance, which may be set to match the impedance of different loads. The circuit slices may also provide adjustable voltages with low power consumption, particularly in high speed applications. The circuit slices may also have programmable capacitors that may be adjusted to provide a programmable time domain behavior of the output voltage waveform, such as a programmable voltage peaking characteristic.