Ic device arranged to minimize thermal feedback effects

Claim 1

In an electronic signal processing device comprising a chip of semi-conductor material arranged to provide at least first and second individual signal processing stages so related that the heat from said second stage flows through the chip material to said first stage to affect the operating characteristics thereof, said first stage being so arranged as to be adversely affected by heat flow arriving in a direction other than along a line passing between the apparent centers of said first and second stages; said second stage being of the type having two balanced sections operable alternately in processing an electronic signal; the improvement for minimizing the effect on said first stage of heat flow from said second stage wherein at least one of said two balanced sections is structurally sub-divided into at least two separate and functionally identical sub-sections which are connected in parallel and which, when both are activated by an input signal, produce equal amounts of heat which could affect said first stage, said two sub-sections being positioned symmetrically on opposite sides of said line passing through the apparent centers of both said first and second stages, whereby the net heat flow from said two sub-sections to said first stage is along said line so as to substantially minimize the effect on said first stage of heat flow from said second stage; the other of said balanced sections being positioned symmetrically with respect to said line passing through the apparent centers of both said first and second stages, so that heat generated in said other section also flows in a direction along said line towards said first stage with resultant minimal effect on the operational characteristics of said first stage.