US 12,463,629 B2
High performance pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM)/non-return-to-zero (NRZ) transmitter driver for high-speed wireline links
Venkata Reddy Sanamreddy, Bangalore (IN); Adithya Kumar Swaminathan, Chennai (IN); and Chakravarti Bheemisetti, Bangalore (IN)
Assigned to Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US)
Filed by Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US)
Filed on Jun. 2, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/831,319.
Prior Publication US 2023/0396243 A1, Dec. 7, 2023
Int. Cl. H03K 7/02 (2006.01)
CPC H03K 7/02 (2013.01) 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus, comprising:
a first driver comprising a first set of driver slices;
a second driver comprising a second set of driver slices, wherein each driver slice in the first set of driver slices is paired with a corresponding paired driver slice in the second set of driver slices by one or more respective switches; and
a control circuit, wherein for each pair of driver slices:
in a non-return-to-zero (NRZ) mode, the control circuit is to turn on the one or more respective switches to couple a first resistance of the driver slice of the first set of driver slices to a second resistance in the paired driver slice of the second set of driver slices; and
in a pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) mode with N=3 or more levels, the control circuit is to turn off the one or more respective switches to decouple the first resistance of the driver slice of the first set of driver slices from the second resistance in the paired driver slice of the second set of driver slices.