| 摘要 |
<p>An anti-saturation clamp for a word decoder utilizes a Schottky Barrier Diode (SBD) Sx in combination with a transistor Tx. The transistor Tx is in circuit with a switching transistor T and diverts the majority of pull down current from the switching transistor. The saturation capacitance of the transistor T is negligible even at high temperature operation, and the transistor T does not operate in saturation. The SBD clamp Sx is in circuit between transistors Tx and T, and can be significantly smaller than a conventional SBD clamp since the clamp current is amplified by transistor Tx. The improved anti-saturation clamp eliminates delay otherwise resulting from saturation capacitance of the switching transistor and results in a performance gain of about 40% for nominal operations. Also contemplated by the invention are improved word decoder systems per se (those which incorporate the aforementioned anti-saturation clamp), and improved methods for enhancing the performance of word decoder systems to, for example, support advanced computing applications. <IMAGE></p> |
