Patent ID: 7109759

Claim:
A circuit for generating a drive waveform is used for driving a load; wherein the drive waveform includes a static bit swing and a pre-emphasis bit swing, the circuit comprising: a) an input (IN) node; b) a complementary input (INB) node; c) an output (OUT) node; d) a complementary output (OUTB) node; e) a fundamental swing determination mechanism (FSDM) coupled to the output (OUT) node and the complementary output (OUTB) node for determining a fundamental swing of the drive waveform by generating a fundamental current (I_FC) through the load; and f) a modulation swing determination mechanism (MSDM) coupled to the output (OUT) node and the complementary output (OUTB) node for determining a modulation swing of the drive waveform by generating a modulation current (I_MC) through the load; wherein the static bit swing is generated when the modulation current (I_MC) is subtracted from the fundamental current (I_FC); and wherein the pre-emphasis bit swing of the drive waveform is generated when the modulation current (I_MC) is added to the fundamental current (I_FC); wherein the circuit includes a voltage mode architecture.