Patent ID: 7965119

Claim:
A device having metastable signal handling capabilities, the device comprises: a pull down circuit and a pull up circuit; a first latch including an inverter with a switching point between a high switching point and a low switching point; a second latch; and a multiple switching point circuit, coupled between an output node of the first latch and an input node of the second latch, wherein the multiple switching point circuit comprises at least one pull up transistor and at least one pull down transistor that are selectively activated in response to a feedback signal provided from the second latch and in response to an output signal of the first latch such as to define at least the low switching point that is lower than the high switching point of the multiple-switching point circuit; wherein: a first portion of the pull down circuit and a first portion of the pull up circuit are activated when the feedback signal has a first value and wherein a second portion of the pull down circuit and a second portion of the pull up circuit are activated when the feedback signal has a second value that differs from the first value; wherein the first portion of the pull down circuit differs from the second portion of the pull down circuit; and wherein the first portion of the pull up circuit differs from the second portion of the pull up circuit.