Patent ID: 7030660

Claim:
A line driver for data transmission comprising: a plurality of driver stages, each driver stage comprising: a first transistor pair with first and second transistors which are differentially actuated as a function of the data which is to be transmitted; and a second transistor pair with a first and second cascade transistor, the first cascade transistor of the second transistor pair connected in series between the first transistor of the first transistor pair of the same driver stage and a first output of the line driver, and the second cascade transistor connected in series between the second transistor of the first transistor pair of the same driver stage and a second output of the line driver, in such a way that the individual driver stages are connected in each case in parallel via the corresponding second transistor pair to the first and second outputs of the line driver; and a control circuit allocated to each driver stage for creating differential control signals (VG A , VG B ) to actuate the two transistors of the first transistor pair of the individual driver stage, whereby each control circuit is designed in such a way that, when the differential control signals (VG A , VG B ) are created, a specific maximum current flows via the one transistor of the first transistor pair, and a specific non-zero minimum current flows via the other transistor of the first transistor pair.