Sense amplifiers with high voltage swing
AssigneeSpansion LLC
InventorsTakao Akaogi, Sameer Wadhwa, Michael Achter, Bhimachar Venkatesh
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Abstract
A sense amplifier includes a reference voltage generator for generating a reference output voltage and a core output voltage generator for generating a core output voltage. The core output voltage generator includes a core front-end stage and a core back-end stage or includes a plurality of amplifier transistors each conducting a portion of a core current through a current conducting device such as core cell. The sizes and/or connections of transistors of such components result in high voltage swing and thus high sensitivity of the sense amplifier.
Claims24
A sense amplifier comprising:
- a reference voltage generator for generating a reference output voltage;
- and
- a core output voltage generator for generating a core output voltage, the core output voltage generator including:
- a core front-end stage coupled to a current conducting device for converting a current through the current conducting device to a core bit voltage;
- and
- a core back-end stage coupled to the core front-end stage for converting the core bit voltage to the core output voltage having higher voltage swing from the core bit voltage.
A sense amplifier comprising:
- a reference voltage generator for generating a reference output voltage;
- and
- a core output voltage generator for generating a core output voltage, the core output voltage generator including:
- a plurality of amplifier transistors each conducting a portion of a core current through a current conducting device;
- wherein a gate of a selected one of the amplifier transistors has the core output voltage generated thereon.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.