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September 1998FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
- Patent
Awarded for Unique IC Trimming Method
Marlborough, MA
– THAT Corporation announces the issue of its U.S.
Patent No. 5,663,684 covering an on-chip,
temperature-compensated IC trimming technique. The
patent, titled "Wafer-stage Adjustment for
Compensating for Mismatches in Temperature Dependent IC
Components", was issued to Gary K. Hebert, Chief
Technology Officer for THAT Corporation. The invention
provides means of correcting, prior to packaging of an
integrated circuit, mismatches between
temperature-dependent circuit elements on the IC.
The development is used in
THAT’s 2180-series of voltage-controlled amplifiers
("VCAs"), components widely used by the
professional audio industry in audio compressors,
limiters, gates, automatic gain control devices,
noise-reduction products, and other dynamics processors.
The THAT 2180 VCAs are known for their ability to
maintain low distortion with no external distortion trim,
and to maintain their distortion performance over
temperature, both characteristics resulting directly from
Hebert’s invention.
Traditionally, low
distortion in VCAs has been achieved by manually
adjusting an external control, a step which adds labor
and parts cost, and is susceptible to a number of
external sources of error. In either case, whether
adjusted manually or at the wafer stage, the settings may
provide correction only over a narrow temperature range,
or at a single device operating point. The Hebert
invention overcomes these limitations by providing a
bipolar adjustment signal on the IC itself which is
independent of both temperature and power supply
voltages, thereby allowing wafer-stage trimming that is
both effective and insensitive to common electrical and
environmental changes.
For complete
information on THAT’s 2180-series of voltage-controlled
amplifiers, download a copy of the 2180
Series data sheet
in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, or contact:
THAT Corporation, 45
Sumner Street, Milford, MA 01757-1656;
Phone:(508)478-9200; Fax:(508)478-0990; Email: info@thatcorp.com
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