Pulse generation circuit and method with transmission pre-emphasis

摘要

A shaped pulse generation circuit for applications such as automatic test equipment pin drivers employs an active feedback circuit that adds a pre-emphasis to the output pulses, thereby compensating for the effect of the transmission system between the pin driver and the device under test. Current pulses are applied to the pin driver output transistors in conjunction with the production of rising and falling output pulse edges to produce edge overshoots that are mitigated during pulse transit to the device under test. The driver circuit together with the pre-emphasis active feedback circuit can be integrated onto a single chip, with an additional programming circuit employed to control the amount of pre-emphasis.