Sense amplifier and operating method for non-volatile memory with reduced need on adjusting offset to compensate the mismatch
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsKu-Feng Lin, Yu-Der Chih
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sense amplifier includes a voltage comparator with offset compensation, a first clamping device and a second clamping device. The voltage comparator is coupled to a bit line and a reference bit line respectively, and configured to compare a first input voltage and a second input voltage to output a sensing signal. The first clamping circuit and the second clamping circuit trim a voltage corresponding to the bit line and a voltage corresponding to the reference bit line respectively to match the voltage corresponding to the reference bit line with the voltage corresponding to the bit line.
Claims20
A sense amplifier, comprising:
- a voltage comparator with offset compensation, coupled to a bit line and a reference bit line via a first I/O node and a second I/O node of the sense amplifier respectively, and configured to compare a first input voltage and a second input voltage to output a sensing signal;
- a first clamping circuit, coupled between the first I/O node of the sense amplifier and the bit line;
- and
- a second clamping circuit, coupled between the second I/O node of the sense amplifier and the reference bit line,
- wherein at least one of the first clamping circuit and the second clamping circuit perform a trimming correction function for matching a first threshold voltage of the first clamping circuit with a second threshold voltage of the second clamping circuit.
A sense amplifier, comprising:
- a voltage comparator, coupled to a bit line and a reference bit line, and configured to compare a first input voltage and a second input voltage to output a sensing signal;
- and
- a clamping circuit, coupled between the voltage comparator, the bit line and the reference bit line,
- wherein one of the voltage comparator and the clamping circuit is with offset compensation,
- wherein the voltage comparator has at least one trimming branch circuit to trim at least one of a first voltage corresponding to the bit line and a second voltage corresponding to the reference bit line to match the voltage corresponding to the reference bit line with the voltage corresponding to the bit line.
An operating method for a non-volatile memory, the non-volatile memory comprises a memory array and a sense amplifier, wherein the sense amplifier comprises a voltage comparator and a clamping device, the clamping device is coupled with a first I/O node of the sense amplifier, a bit line, a second I/O node of the sense amplifier, and a reference bit line, and one of the voltage comparator and the clamping device is with offset compensation, wherein the operating method comprising:
- comparing, by the voltage comparator, a first input voltage and a second input voltage via the first I/O node and the second I/O node of the sense amplifier respectively to output a sensing signal;
- and trimming, by the clamping device, at least one of a voltage corresponding to the bit line and a voltage corresponding to the reference bit line respectively to match a first threshold voltage of a first clamping circuit with a second threshold voltage of a second clamping circuit;
- or trimming, by the voltage comparator, at least one of the voltage corresponding to the bit line and the voltage corresponding to the reference bit line to match the voltage corresponding to the reference bit line with the voltage corresponding to the bit line.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.