Voltage sensing circuit capable of controlling a pump voltage stably generated in a low voltage environment
AssigneeHynix Semiconductor Inc.
InventorsWoo-Seung HAN, Khil-Ohk Kang
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Abstract
Herein, a voltage sensing circuit, which is capable of controlling a pumping voltage to be stably generated in a low voltage environment, is provided. The voltage sensing circuit includes a current mirror having first and second terminals, a first switching element configured to control current on the first terminal of the current mirror by a reference voltage, a second switching element configured to control current from the second terminal of the current mirror in response to a pumping voltage, and a third switching element configured to control current sources of the first and second switching elements to receive a negative voltage.
Claims10
A voltage sensing circuit for sensing a level of a pumping voltage, comprising:
- a voltage dividing unit configured to divide a fed-back pumping voltage to output the divided pumping voltage;
- and
- a differential amplifier configured to perform differential amplification with a reference voltage as a first input and the divided pumping voltage as a second input, the differential amplifier having a source voltage at a negative voltage,
- wherein the pumping voltage is higher than a supply voltage and the negative voltage is lower than a ground voltage.
A method of sensing a pumping voltage, comprising:
- dividing a fed-back pumping voltage to output a divided pumping voltage;
- and
- differentially amplifying a difference between the divided pumping voltage and a reference voltage using differential amplifiers which are supplied with a negative voltage as a source voltage,
- wherein the pumping voltage is higher than a supply voltage and the negative voltage is lower than a ground voltage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.