Patent 7098833 was granted and assigned to Texas Instruments on August, 2006 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A tri-value decoder and method for decoding at least three states of an input signal are provided. An exemplary tri-value decoder and method can facilitate decoding of input signals without the use of threshold values and/or forcing a tri-state input signal to a mid-rail value for tri-state detection, and with less dependence on variations in product, process and temperature. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, an exemplary tri-value decoder circuit comprises a switch circuit, a feedback loop and a sequence detector. An exemplary switch circuit is configured to facilitate sampling of a tri-state input signal through control by the feedback loop, with the sequence detector configured for decoding the tri-state input signal into a two-bit digital signal by detecting at least two samples of the tri-state input signal during a sampling period.