Patent ID: 7733142

Claim:
An edge-rate control circuit arrangement for an I 2 C bus application, the arrangement comprising: a first circuit stage, responsive to a state transition of a received signal; and a second circuit stage responsive to the state transition of the received signal, the second circuit stage comprising: drive circuitry that is activated in response to the state transition of the received signal in order to provide an edge-transition signal for an I 2 C bus, regulation circuitry that controls the drive circuitry and regulates a transition rate for the edge-transition signal, the transition rate being greater than a transition rate of the received signal at the first circuit stage and greater than a minimum and less than a maximum transition rate designated for communication on the I 2 C bus, wherein the regulation circuitry comprises: a current-shunt circuit that provides a consistent response to the state transition of the received signal by shunting excess current away from the drive circuitry, the current-shunt circuit including a voltage-divider circuit and a current switch circuit that is activated in response to a voltage change present at a node in the voltage-divider circuit.