High-speed switch with accelerated switching time

Abstract

A method and apparatus is disclosed for maintaining a stable power supply to a circuit when activating/deactivating a switch in order to accelerate the switching time of the switch. The gate of a FET is coupled to a switch driver. The switch driver is powered by a positive power supply and a negative power supply. When the switch is to be activated/deactivated, the gate is first coupled to a reference potential (i.e., ground) for a “reset period” to reduce any positive/negative charge that has been accumulated in the FET. At the end of the reset period, the gate is then released from the reference potential and the switch driver drives the gate to the desired voltage level to either activate or deactivate the switch.

Claims

1. A switch branch comprising: (a) a field effect transistor (FET) coupled between a switch branch input and a switch branch output, the FET having a gate controlled by a gate signal; (b) a switch control input configured to receive control signals to be applied to the gate of the FET; (c) a reset circuit coupled between the switch control input and the gate of the FET, the reset circuit having a reference potential input and a reset control port; wherein the reset circuit couples the gate of the FET to the reference potential input during a reset period defined by a reset pulse received through the reset control port, the reset pulse being generated in response to a change in state of the control signals applied to the switch control input; and wherein the reset circuit couples the gate of the FET to the switch control input in the absence of the reset pulse.

2. The switch branch of claim 1, wherein, during the reset period, the reset circuit reduces positive or negative charge accumulated on the gate of the FET.

3. The switch branch of claim 1, wherein the FET includes two or more FETs coupled in series between the switch branch input and the switch branch output, each FET having a gate controlled by a common gate signal.

4. The switch of claim 1, further comprising a driver coupled between the switch control input and the signal input of the reset circuit.

5. The switch of claim 4, wherein the driver is coupled to a positive power supply and to a negative power supply, and the reference potential input is coupled to a reference potential between the potential of the negative and positive power supplies.

6. The switch of claim 5, wherein the reference potential is ground.

7. The switch of claim 1, wherein the change in state of the signal applied to the switch control input is from a high level to a low level.

8. The switch of claim 1, wherein the change in state of the signal applied to the switch control input is from a low level to a high level.

9. A switch branch comprising: (a) a switch input; (b) a switch output; (c) at least one field effect transistor (FET) series-coupled between the switch input and the switch output, each FET having a gate controlled by a common gate signal; (d) a switch control input configured to receive control signals to be applied to the gate of the FET; (e) a reset circuit including: (1) a signal input coupled to the switch control input; (2) a signal output coupled to the gate of the at least one FET; (3) a reference potential input; (4) a reset control port; (5) a series switch coupled between the signal input and the signal output; and (6) a shunt switch coupled between the signal output and the reference potential input; wherein the reset circuit closes the shunt switch and opens the series switch during a reset period defined by a reset pulse received through the reset control port, the reset pulse being generated in response to a change in state of the control signals applied to the switch control input; and wherein the reset circuit opens the shunt switch and closes the series switch in the absence of the reset pulse.

10. The switch of claim 9, further comprising a driver coupled between the switch control input and the signal input of the reset circuit.

11. The switch of claim 10, wherein the driver is coupled to a positive power supply and to a negative power supply, and the reference potential input is coupled to a reference potential between the potential of the negative and positive power supplies.

12. The switch of claim 11, wherein the reference potential is ground.

13. The switch of claim 9, wherein the change in state of the signal applied to the switch control input is from a high level to a low level.

14. The switch of claim 9, wherein the change in state of the signal applied to the switch control input is from a low level to a high level.

15. The switch of claim 9, wherein the reset pulse has a duration of between about 100 ns and about 150 ns.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a simplified schematic showing an example of a three-port switch.

(2) FIG. 2 is a more detailed schematic of a switch branch of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.

(3) FIG. 3 is a graph showing the ideal operation of one switch branch.

(4) FIG. 4 illustrates that the voltage of V.sub.SS can raise in response to the large load presented at the output of the driver by the capacitance at the gate of the FET.

(5) FIG. 5 is a simplified three-port switch in accordance with some embodiments of the presently disclosed method and apparatus.

(6) FIG. 6 is a simplified schematic of a switch branch in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosed method and apparatus.

(7) FIG. 7 is a timing diagram illustrating the relative timing of the signals coupled to the switch control input of a switch branch and the reset control input of a reset circuit within the switch branch.

(8) FIG. 8 is an illustration of the positive impact of resetting the gate of a FET.

(9) FIG. 9 shows plots of the logical state of the switch control signal, the reset switch control signal, the series reset switch and the shunt reset switch.

(10) FIG. 10 is an illustration of a method in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosed method and apparatus.

(11) Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(12) FIG. 5 is a simplified schematic of a multiport switch, and more particularly, a three-port switch 600 in accordance with some embodiments of the presently disclosed method and apparatus. However, it will be understood that the three-port switch 600 is provided merely as an example of one embodiment of the disclosed method and apparatus and that the multiport switch may take any form.

(13) The three-port switch 600 has four switch branches 608, 610, 612, 614. In some embodiments, a reset processor 603 is coupled to reset control port 710 of each of the four switch branches 608, 610, 612, 614. Only the connection between the reset processor 603 and the switch branch 612 is shown in FIG. 5 for the sake of simplicity in the figure. Alternatively, the reset control signal is coupled to less than all of the switch branches 608, 610, 612, 614. In addition, in some embodiments, a corresponding one of four, three-port switch control signals is coupled to an associated one of the four switch branches 608, 610, 612, 614 to control when the switch branch is open or closed.

(14) FIG. 6 is a simplified schematic of the switch branch 612. In some embodiments, one or more of the other switch branches 608, 610, 612, 614 are implemented as shown in FIG. 6, however, for the sake of this discussion, the switch shown in FIG. 6 is referred to as switch 612. The switch 612 comprises a switch control input 702, reset control input 710, a stacked FET 301 (hereafter referred to as “FET 301”), a switch driver 305, and a reset circuit 704. The input of the switch driver 305 is coupled to the switch control input 702. In some embodiments, the switch driver 305 is powered by a positive power supply V.sub.DD and a negative power supply V.sub.SS. In some embodiments, V.sub.DD=3 v and V.sub.SS=−3 v.

(15) The reset circuit 704 is shown in the “inactive” state in which a series switch 706 is closed and a shunt switch 708 is open. In an “active” state, the series switch 706 is open and a shunt switch 708 is closed. The reset control input 710 is coupled to the reset circuit 704 and to the reset processor 603. Signals coupled to the reset control input 710 are generated by the reset processor 603. In some embodiments, the reset processor 603 and at least one switch branch reside within the same package and may be formed on the same substrate. Alternatively, the reset processor 603 resides in a separate package and/or is formed on a separate substrate from one or more of the switch branches 608, 610, 612, 614. Accordingly, in some embodiments, not all of the switches 608, 610, 612, 614 are fabricated on the same substrate and housed within the same package.

(16) A reset control signal coupled to the reset control input 710 determines whether the reset circuit 704 is active or inactive. In some embodiments, the switch control 3 signal that is coupled to the switch control input 702 is also coupled to the reset processor 603 to trigger the generation of the reset control signal. The switches 706, 708 within the reset circuit 704 can be implemented as relatively small and fast FETs, since they are only used to reset the gate voltage of the FET 301. That is, resetting the FET 301 does not require a significant voltage handling capability, nor is a large amount of current passed through the series switch 706 and the shunt switch 708.

(17) FIG. 7 is a timing diagram illustrating the relative timing of the signals coupled to the switch control input 702 and the reset control input 710. A first plot 802 shows the state of the switch control signal coupled to the switch control input 702. A second plot 804 shows the state of the reset switch control signal coupled to the reset control input 710. A third plot 806 shows the state of the series reset switch 706. A fourth plot 808 shows the state of the shunt reset switch 708.

(18) The signals are coordinated in time by the reset processor 603, such that each time the switch control signal 802 presented at the switch input 702 changes state (e.g., in some embodiments, when the signal goes low), the reset control signal 804 presented to the reset control input 710 will deliver a pulse from the high to low and back to high. The reset control signal activates the reset circuit 704 during a “reset period” and then deactivates the reset circuit 704 at the end of the reset period. The reset processor 603 can be implemented by a programmable device (such as a microprocessor), hardware, a state machine or any other well-known mechanism for generating a pulse upon detecting a change in state of the input to the reset processor 603. In some embodiments, other inputs to the reset processor 603 can be used to assist in determining the duration of the reset period (i.e., how long the reset control signal will keep the reset circuit 704 in the active state).

(19) When the reset circuit 704 is active (i.e., during the reset period), the output of the switch driver 305 is disconnected from the gate of the FET 301 by the series reset switch and shorted to a reference potential input 705 through the shunt reset switch 708. The reference potential input may be coupled to a known reference potential between V.sub.DD and V.sub.SS, such as ground. Therefore, any accumulated charge at the gate of the FET 301 is provided a low resistance path to the reference potential. Consequently, most of the charge accumulated at the gate of the FET 301 is removed (i.e., the gate is placed at the reference potential). At the end of the reset period, the shunt switch 708 is opened and the series reset switch 706 is closed, placing the reset circuit 704 back in the inactive state and allowing the switch driver 305 to drive the gate of the FET 301 to V.sub.SS, thus turning the FET 301 off. In some embodiments, the reference potential is ground.

(20) By resetting the gate of the FET 301 before the switch driver is attempts to drive the gate to V.sub.SS, the reset circuit 704 assists in attaining the V.sub.SS potential at the gate of the FET 301 (and the output of the switch driver 305) by first placing the gate at the reference potential. Accordingly, at the end of the reset period, when the reset circuit 704 is returned to the inactive state, the switch driver 305 only has to drive the gate of the FET 301 from the reference potential (i.e., ground or another voltage level between V.sub.DD and V.sub.SS) to V.sub.SS. Resetting the gate significantly reduces the load on the output of the switch driver 305, thus reducing the rise in V.sub.SS as the switch driver 305 attempts to drive the gate of the FET 301 to V.sub.SS.

(21) FIG. 8 is an illustration of the positive impact of resetting the gate of the FET 301 (and each of the FETs in the other switches 608, 610, 614 as desired). A plot 902 of V.sub.SS shows a reduction in amount of time V.sub.SS rises compared with that show in FIG. 4, due to the reduced loading on the V.sub.SS power supply. That is, by resetting the gate of the FET 301, the amount of charge at the output of the switch driver 305 is reduced, thus the amount of time V.sub.SS rises is smaller. Furthermore, it can be seen from the plot 904 that the gate voltage will more rapidly achieve a level that allows the switches to attain their desired state more quickly. The resulting “turn off time” between t.sub.1 and t.sub.2″ in FIG. 8 is substantially less than the turn off time between time t.sub.1 and t.sub.2′ shown in FIG. 4. It should be noted that while the discussion above focused on the switch branch 612, in some embodiments, such a reset circuit 704 is provided in each of the switch branches 608, 610, 614.

(22) Furthermore, in some embodiments, the reset circuit 704 is also momentarily activated when the switch control signal switches from a low state to a high state. FIG. 9 shows plots of the logical state of the switch control signal 1002, the reset switch control signal 1004, the series reset switch 1006 and the shunt reset switch 1008. In this case, the gate of the FET 301 will be transitioning from a low to a high voltage (e.g., from V.sub.SS to V.sub.DD). As in FIG. 7, FIG. 9 merely shows the logical state of the switch control signal and not the voltage. In some cases, the positive voltage supply providing V.sub.DD is strong enough to resist the loading at the output of the switch driver 305 when driving the output to V.sub.DD, making it unnecessary to reset the FET 301 when the gate is being driven high. However, in some cases it may be beneficial to reset the gate of the FET 301 both when driving the gate high as well as when driving it low. As shown in FIG. 9, the FET 301 is reset when the switch control signal goes high by toggling the reset switch control signal momentarily low. When the reset switch control signal is low, the series reset switch is open and the shunt reset switch is closed. Accordingly, the gate of the FET 301 is shunted to ground when the reset switch control signal is low. Once the reset switch control signal returns to the high logic state (reset circuit 704 inactive), the output of the driver 305 is once again connected to the gate of the FET 301.

(23) Methods

(24) Another aspect of the invention includes a method shown in FIG. 10 for improving the switching speed of a switch, including: changing the state of the switch by changing the logic level to the input of a driver, the driver having an output coupled to the gate of a transistor (such as a FET) (STEP 1001); disconnecting the output of the driver from the gate of the transistor over a reset period (STEP 1003); coupling the gate of the transistor to a known potential that is between the high potential power supply and the low potential power supply applied to the driver during the reset period (STEP 1005); disconnecting the gate of the transistor from the known potential at the end of the reset period (STEP 1007); and connecting the gate of the transistor to the output of the driver at the end of the reset period (STEP 1009).
The duration of the reset period is dependent upon the number of FETs in the stack and the size of the FETs within the switch branch in which the reset circuit resides. In some embodiments, a reset time of approximately 100 to 150 ns is appropriate.

(25) Fabrication Technologies and Options

(26) The term “MOSFET” means any transistor that has an insulated gate whose to source voltage determines the conductivity of the transistor.

(27) Various embodiments can be implemented to meet a wide variety of specifications. Unless otherwise noted above, selection of suitable component values is a matter of design choice. Various embodiments of the disclosed method and apparatus may be implemented in any suitable IC technology (including but not limited to MOSFET structures), or in hybrid or discrete circuit forms. Integrated circuit embodiments may be fabricated using any suitable substrates and processes, including but not limited to standard bulk silicon, silicon-on-insulator (SOI), silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) bipolar, GaAs HBT, GaN HEMT, GaAs pHEMT, and MESFET technologies.

(28) A number of embodiments of the disclosed method and apparatus have been described. It is to be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the claimed invention. For example, some of the steps described above may be optional. Various activities described with respect to the methods identified above can be executed in repetitive, serial, or parallel fashion. Voltage levels may be adjusted or voltage and/or logic signal polarities reversed depending on a particular specification and/or implementing technology (e.g., NMOS, PMOS, or CMOS, and enhancement mode or depletion mode transistor devices). Component voltage, current, and power handling capabilities may be adapted as needed, for example, by adjusting device sizes, serially “stacking” components (particularly FETs) to withstand greater voltages, and/or using multiple components in parallel to handle greater currents. Additional circuit components may be added to enhance the capabilities of the disclosed circuits and/or to provide additional functional without significantly altering the functionality of the disclosed circuits.

(29) It is to be understood that the foregoing description is intended to illustrate and not to limit the scope of the invention, which is defined by the scope of the following claims, and that other embodiments are within the scope of the claims. (Note that the parenthetical labels for claim elements are for ease of referring to such elements, and do not in themselves indicate a particular required ordering or enumeration of elements; further, such labels may be reused in dependent claims as references to additional elements without being regarded as starting a conflicting labeling sequence).