Abstract: A current controlled oscillator is described comprising: a latch comprising two logic inverters to maintain a switch state for a determined duration, the latch having two complementary output voltages; a differential switch pair comprising a first and a second switch controlled by the two complementary output voltages respectively to steer a control current to a first and a second node alternatively; a third and fourth switch driven on by a high level voltage at one of the first and second node to set and reset the latch; and a fifth and sixth switch controlled by the two complementary output voltages respectively to pull down voltages at the first and second node alternatively, wherein the first and fifth switch are controlled by a same control signal and the second and sixth switch are controlled by a same control signal; whereby the frequency of switching is a function of the capacitance of the first and second node and the control current.

Abstract: An electrical-supply-free MOS integrated circuit is described. The circuit comprises: a first semiconductor device having a first current terminal, a first input voltage terminal, and a first common terminal, said semiconductor device having a voltage between said first input voltage terminal and said first common terminal that controls a current flow leaving said first current terminal; and a first opto-electronic device having a first anode connected to said first current terminal and a first cathode connected to a ground to convert an input of incident light into an electrical signal, said first opto-electronic device having photodiode and photovoltaic cell capabilities; wherein a voltage is set between a node of said first current terminal and said first common terminal. The principle of the circuit operation can be used for developing optically controlled electrical-supply-free very large scale integrated circuits (VLSI) at low-cost.

Abstract: This invention relates to a method and apparatus for converting a current signal into a two-level output voltage depending on a reference current signal. In one embodiment, a first current, which is the reference current signal is applied to the apparatus. A negative feedback sets the output of the apparatus in a certain configuration. Any current signal to be compared to the reference current signal may be then applied. The output voltage level depends on whether the current signal is lower or higher than the reference current signal.

Abstract: This invention relates to a method and apparatus for amplifying an input current into an output current. An input current is first injected in or pulled out of a transimpedance stage and converted, in a linear way, into an interstage voltage. The interstage voltage is then converted into the output current. The conversion of the interstage voltage into an output current is performed by maintaining a transistor in the triode mode to obtain a linear conversion as well as adding a current which comes from a current source.