Controlling a sense amplifier

Abstract

A semiconductor memory device arrangement that provides improved sensitivity of a sense amplifier that reads data from a memory cell. This sensitivity increase is accomplished by increasing a voltage difference between a data I/O line an a complementary data I/O line. A plurality of memory cells stor data. A data input/output (I/O) line pair (including a data I/O line and a complementary data I/O line), coupled to the memory cells, transfers the data. A sense amplifier senses and amplifies a voltage difference between the data I/O line and the complementary data I/O line. A capacitor has a first of its terminals coupled to the data I/O line. A first switching unit transfers the data applied to the data I/O line pair to two terminals of the capacitor in response to a first control signal. A second switching unit couples the second terminal of the capacitor to the data I/O line in response to a second control signal.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.