Appeal No. 95-3917
Application 07/861,144
DECISION ON APPEAL
This is a decision on appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from the
final rejection of claims 1-22, all of the claims pending in the
application. The amendment filed with the appeal brief as
Appendix B has not been entered (Examiner's Answer, page 1).
The invention is directed to an integrated circuit which includes a network of passive elements (e.g.,
resistors or capacitors) that can be selectively connected to one another between first and second nodes
of the network in either a parallel or series arrangement. A plurality of logic gates controlled by a decoder
are used to selectively include or exclude each passive element from contributing to the value of the passive
component represented by the equivalent circuit of the network between the first and second nodes.
Claim 1 is reproduced below.
1. An integrated circuit having a trimmable passive circuit component adjustable to achieve
a precise target value, comprising:
a decoder having N inputs and M outputs, wherein M is related to and exceeds N, said
inputs and outputs each having first and second logic states, the logic states of the outputs
corresponding to coded logic states on the inputs; and
a network connected to the outputs of the decoder and having a first node and a second
node defining the terminals of the passive circuit component within the integrated circuit, the
network including a plurality of interconnected passive elements and a plurality of corresponding
logic gates, each logic gate having a control terminal for setting the logic gate to either a conductive
state or a nonconductive state, each control terminal being coupled to and controlled by one of the
M outputs of the decoder, each gate being connected to its corresponding passive element for
selectively including or excluding the passive element from a circuit path between the first and
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