Integrated subscriber line interface circuit with smooth polarity-reversal

Abstract: An integrated telephone interface circuit for driving a telephone line (3) comprises a line current sensor (30) and a phase converter (2), both associated with an output stage (20) connected to the line (3). This circuit is equipped with a protection device against the generation of spurious signals comprising: a comparator (12) connected between the converter (2) and the output stage (20); a control and monitoring circuit means (15) linked operatively to the comparator (12) output; and plural switch means (9,18,19,23,24) associated with the input side of the converter (2), as well as with the current sensor (30) and the output stage (20), being linked operatively to respective outputs of the circuit means (15) to reverse polarity of the line (3) supply upon a predetermined threshold value for the comparator (12) being exceeded.

Description: This invention relates to an interface integrated circuit for driving telephone subscriber lines, being of a type which comprises a line current sensor and a phase converter, both associated with an output stage connected to the telephone line. Field of the Invention The invention is related in particular to the field of telephone circuitry which interface the lines connected to telephone subscriber apparatuses with a central station. There exists a demand in this specific field to improve the quality of the communications over the telephone lines and, at the same time, to expand the range of services offered to the users. In this respect, it can be mentioned that token-operated apparatuses installed in public telephone boxes produce noise (spurious signal) in the audio band each time that a token is accepted, this is due to a reversal of the polarity brought about at the line ends. Furthermore, in recent years, complex telephone services, such as "videotel", are gaining widespread acceptance which involve transmission of trains of digital information over the telephone lines. To fill such increasingly more sophisticated demands, a constant effort to improve the quality of transmission over telephone lines has become mandatory. This effort concentrates, on the one side, on improving the structural quality of each line or of the telephone network as a whole. In fact, many national telephone companies are known to be involved in restoring their telephone networks through the use of fiber optics. On the other side, the improvement effort is directed toward the suppression of any noise in the audio band as well as the interferences with the band employed for transmitting digital information. Prior Art To that aim, the attention has been focused on the circuit devices which operate to interface the telephone subscriber lines. For example, it is a well-recognized fact that a controlled or "soft" reversal in the supply polarity to the telephone subscriber line could ensure suppression of the aforesaid noise. "Polarity reversal" or "battery reversal" means here to exchange the polarities of the TIP and RING wires in a two-wire telephone line. In other words, to reverse polarity is to cause the TIP wire to take the voltage of the RING wire, and vice versa. It would indeed be appreciated if the interfacing telephone circuit connected to the line could perform a soft reversal of the supply polarity to the line. However, interface telephone circuits have been implemented heretofore by integrated circuits which tend to be complicated both in construction and operation, and to which new functions cannot be integrated in a simple manner without compromising in some other areas of the circuit. In the specific instance considered, the reversal of polarity to the line, i.e. exchanging the TIP and RING wires, may bring about a situation of malfunction instead of fostering the suppression of line noise. Thus, no monolithically integrated telephone circuits are known at present which can reverse the supply polarity to the subscriber line in a soft manner. A polarity reversal circuit is described in the EP-A-0 193 244. Such a circuit includes the features of the preamble of claim 1, such as a differential amplifier and a signal source able to apply a constant voltage and a gradually varying voltage to respective inputs of the amplifier. The underlying technical problem of this invention is to provide an interfacing telephone circuit which is monolithically integrated and adapted to drive a telephone subscriber line, having further such structural and functional features as to allow a soft reversal of the line polarity, thereby overcoming the limitations of prior art approaches. Summary of the Invention This problem is solved by a circuit as outlined above and defined in the characterizing parts of the appended claims. The features and advantages of a circuit according to the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof, given by way of example and not of limitation with reference to the accompanying drawings. Brief Description of the Drawings Figure 1 is a diagram showing schematically a monolithically integrated interface telephone circuit connected to a telephone subscriber line. Figure 2 is a diagram showing schematically an interface circuit according to this invention and effective to permit reversal of the supply polarity to the telephone line. Figure 3 shows a set of graphs plotted along a common time base and related to voltage signals appearing in the circuit of Figure 2. Detailed Description With reference to the drawing views, generally and schematically shown at 1 is line driver circuit included in a monolithically integrated telephone circuit 25 called SLIC (Subscriber Line Interface Circuit) and installed in telephone exchanges. The circuit 1 is powered by a voltage -Ve and connected to a two-wire telephone line 3 which is connected to a subscriber apparatus 8 and comprises a pair of conductors A and B. The circuit 1 drives the line 3 through a pair of outputs, namely: a first terminal TIP connected to the conductor A, and a second terminal RING connected to the conductor B; supplied at such outputs are respective line currents Ia and Ib. Advantageously, according to the invention, the circuit 1 is equipped with a protection device effective to perform a soft reversal of the supply polarity of the line 3 wires, and this without generating spurious signals or interferences in the audio transmission bands. For this purpose, the circuit 1 is constructed with different circuit portions, each exhibiting predetermined functional characteristics as detailed herein below. A first circuit portion 2 comprises a voltage-current converter 13 having a voltage input 7 and a pair of signal outputs 4, 5. Correspondingly associated with each of said outputs 4, 5 is a current source A1, A2. The first output 4 is connected to ground, downstream from the source A1, via a resistor R1. The second output 5 is connected to a supply pole at a negative voltage -Ve via a resistor R2. Preferably, the resistors R1 and R2 have the same value, whilst the source A1=-A2. The outputs 4 and 5 are also connected to respective inputs of a comparator 12, the single output wherefrom is applied to an input of a logic circuit 15. The voltage input 7 of the converter 2 is connected, on the one side, to ground via a capacitor C, and on the other side, to a switch 9. It matters to observe that the capacitor C is the only external component part of the integrated circuit 1. The switch 9 is, of course, an electronic switch, and can be changed over between a first position, where it connects the input 7 to one end of a first current source Io having the opposite end grounded, and a second position where it connects the input 7 to one end of a second current source Io having the opposite end grounded. The current sources Io associated with the switch 9 are in phase opposition with each other. The switch 9 is linked operatively to an output CSC from the logic circuit 15, which circuit receives a control enable signal at a second input COMBI. A second circuit portion 20 comprises an output stage which incorporates a pair of output buffers 16, 17, one for each of the TIP and RING line terminals. Each buffer 16 and 17 has its output fed back to one buffer input. The other input of each buffer is connected to a corresponding switch 18, 19. Each switch 18, 19 is an electronic type and has two stable states, each associated with the respective signal outputs 4 and 5 of the converter 13. The switches 18 and 19 are linked operatively to a second output BI of the logic circuit 15. A third circuit portion 30 comprises a line current sensor connected between the supply pole at negative voltage -Ve and ground. Such signals are correlated by an appropriate sign with the line currents Ia and Ib, and the circuit 30 processes such current signals to output further signals which are respectively proportional to the difference and the sum of the line currents, i.e. (Ia-Ib)/K and (Ia+Ib)/K. The circuit portion 30 is substantially constructed of plural current mirrors 27 having suitable gain values to output said proportional signals to the difference and the sum of the line currents. The sensor 30 is also provided with a pair of electronic switches 23 and 24 linked operatively to the output BI of the logic circuit 15. The operation of the inventive circuit will now be explained. The battery reversal command is supplied to the input COMBI of the circuit 1 from exchange equipments. This command is then passed by the logic circuit 15 as its own output CSC to enable, by appropriate operation of the switch 9, the capacitor C to become charged with a constant current. As a result, a ramp voltage Vc is generated which will, through the voltage input 7 of the converter 13, be amplified and converted to two signals in phase opposition within the circuit portion 2. Such signals are transmitted to the line buffers 16, 17 through the outputs 4 and 5 of the portion 2. The comparator 12, being in turn connected to the outputs 4 and 5, will detect the zero value of the line voltage between the outputs 4 and 5. The comparator 12 will, in response transmit, to the logic circuit 15, a signal which activates the command to switch for the input stages of the buffers 16 and 17. The output BI, in fact, operates the switches 18 and 19, and in parallel therewith, the switches 23 and 24 in the line current sensor 30. Simultaneously therewith, the output CSC will also change over and operate the switch 9 as well, thereby reversing the direction of the current through the capacitor C and causing the latter to be discharged. The line conductors A, B are then supplied once again the original voltage, proportional to Vc, but with the wire polarities reversed, as shown in Figure 3 with respect to the patterns of the signals VTIP and VRING. The above operations are repeated upon the battery reversal signal presented to the input COMBI by the exchange equipment being switched back to the original condition. In essence, the circuit of this invention utilizes the suppression of the line voltage to switch over the various stages, thereby avoiding discontinuances in the line voltage and current. By virtue of the polarity recovery at the sensor 30, the operations connected with the battery reversal can be confined to the circuit portions 2, 20 and 30. But the integrated 25 comprises more circuit portions, not shown because conventional, which may be arranged to handle the voice signal, for example. Let us consider now the circuit portion which provides the telephone hybrid coil, or that handling the DC supply to the telephone line. Well, these additional circuit portions are in no way affected by the operations described above in connection with the battery reversal. It follows that these additional circuit portions may be made even simpler by omitting the stages for phase reversal or rectifying circuits. Where such portions are separate from the interface circuit 25, they would not even require the handling feature associated with battery reversal. The circuit of this invention does solve the technical problem, and affords a number of advantages, first and foremost that improved communications quality can be ensured over lines utilizing the battery reversal function. Furthermore, the inventive circuit drastically cuts down interferences (bit rate error) with data communications. Another important advantage is that the invention is compatible to those communications systems which employ unbalanced powering of the telephone line. Notice, moreover, that the capacitor C is an external component part of the circuit 1, and that its value may be decided upon by the user in designing the telephone exchange. Accordingly, the user will be able to also adjust the rate at which the circuit is to reverse the line polarity, the charge/discharge current for the capacitor C being, in fact, a predetermined constant value. In conclusion, the circuit of this invention is not only effective to produce a soft reversal of the line polarity but also allows the rate of such a reversal to be programmed to suit individual design requirements. Understandably, many changes and modifications may be made unto the circuit of this invention within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims: An interface integrated circuit for driving a telephone subscriber line (3), being of a type which comprises a line current sensor (30) and a phase splitter (2) having an input side connected to a voltage input (7), both circuits being associated with an output stage (20) connected to the line (3), characterized in that it comprises: an input voltage generator (Io, 9, C) having a first controlled switch (9), receiving a control signal (CSC), and generating an input voltage signal (Vc) on said voltage input (7); a comparator (12) connected between the phase splitter (2) and the output stage (20), the comparator (12) being connected to outputs (4, 5) of the phase splitter (2) to compare a first and a second output signals of the phase splitter (2) ; a control and monitoring circuit (15) linked operatively to the output of said comparator (12) and further receiving a battery reversal input signal (COMBI); second switches (18,19) being associated with an input side of the output stage (20); and third switches (23,24) being associated with a feedback side of the line current sensor (30); said control and monitoring circuit (15) generating activation signals (CSC, BI) for said first, second and third switches (9,18,19,23,24) to reverse polarity of the line (3) when a zero value of the line voltage is detected by said comparator (12) and said battery reversal signal (COMBI) is received by said monitoring circuit (15). A circuit according to Claim 1, characterized in that the input voltage generator is a ramp voltage generator. A circuit according to Claim 1, characterized in that said comparator (12) has respective inputs connected to the signal outputs (4,5) of said phase splitter (2). A circuit according to Claim 1, characterized in that said input voltage generator comprises an external capacitor (C) connected between a reference potential and the voltage input (7) of the phase splitter (2), said first switch (9) being connected between said input (7) and a pair of current sources (Io) independently connected between said first switch (9) and the reference potential. A circuit according to Claim 4, characterized in that said current sources (Io) are in phase opposition with each other. A circuit according to Claim 4, characterized in that said output stage (20) comprises a pair of output buffers (16,17), one for each line (3) terminal (A,B), and that said third switches (18,19) are connected between said signal outputs (4,5) and corresponding inputs of said buffers (16,17). A circuit according to Claim 1, characterized in that said control and monitoring circuit comprises a logic circuit (15) having a first input connected to the comparator (12) output and a second input (COMBI) adapted to receive an enable signal from an exchange incorporating the telephone circuit (1), said logic circuit (15) having respective control outputs for each of said first, second and third switches (9,18,19,23,24). A circuit according to Claim 1, characterized in that said first, second and third switches (9,18,19,23,24) comprise electronic switches.

Inventors: SAVIOTTI VANNI, SAVIOTTI, VANNI
Applicants: ST MICROELECTRONICS SRL, STMICROELECTRONICS S.R.L.
Application year: 1993
Main classification: H04M19
IPC codes: H04M19, H04Q3