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US 2002/0000839 A1Published application
Sense amplifier
AssigneeInfineon Technologies AG
InventorsGERHARD MUELLER, HEINZ HOENIGSCHMID
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Abstract
Providing an active signal that increases the gate overdrive voltage of the driver of a sense amplifier enables the use of smaller drivers. This facilitates more efficient layouts and/or smaller sense amplifiers, thereby reducing the chip size.
Claims8
A sense amplifier comprising:
- a latch coupled to first and second bitlines, and
- a driver including an input and an output coupled to the latch, the driver being operable to receive an active input signal to activate the driver, wherein the active input signal produces an increase in the overdrive voltage to cause the driver to operate in the increased overdrive mode.
An amplifier comprising:
- a cross-coupled latch including a first transistor having a first source and a first drain, a second transistor having a second source and a second drain, wherein the first and second sources are coupled;
- and
- a driver including an output coupled to the first and second sources, wherein an active signal at the driver input increases a gate overdrive voltage of the driver, causing it to operate in an increased overdrive mode.
A method of operating a sense amplifier comprising:
- sensing a differential voltage between first and second bitlines;
- coupling the output of a driver to one of the first and second bitlines depending on whether the differential voltage is a positive or a negative differential voltage;
- and
- activating the driver with an active driver input signal, wherein the active driver input signal increases a gate overdrive voltage of the driver to operate the driver in an overdriven mode.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.