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US 6,320,788 B1Granted
Programmable impedance device
AssigneeSanDisk Corporation
InventorsJames D. Sansbury, Sau C. Wang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A programmable impedance element (204) is implemented using integrated circuit techniques and devices. An impedance of the programmable impedance element is adjusted by appropriately configuring the element. The programmable impedance element has a range of impedance values, and is configurable to be a value within this range. In an embodiment, the programmable impedance element is implemented using a floating gate device (230), and is nonvolatile.
Claims12
A circuit comprising:
- a first impedance device connected between a first voltage level and a node;
- a second impedance device connected between the node and a second voltage level, wherein one of the impedance devices comprises a non-volatile programmable impedance element having an impedance value selectable by configuring a floating gate.
A method of providing a delay, comprising:
- applying a programming voltage to a floating gate memory device;
- configuring the floating gate memory device to have a programmed threshold voltage that is a value between a first threshold value and a second threshold voltage, inclusive;
- and
- obtaining an impedance value for a delay network, coupled to the floating gate memory device, based on the threshold voltage of the floating gate memory device, wherein the delay network comprises:
- a nonvolatile programmable impedance element coupled between an input node and an output node and having said impedance value;
- and
- a capacitance coupled between the output node and a reference potential, wherein the circuit provides the delay based said impedance value.
4 more elements
A programmable impedance element comprising:
- a memory cell comprising a floating gate and a control gate configurable to have a plurality of threshold voltages;
- and
- a programmable impedance device comprising a control gate and sharing the floating gate, wherein an impedance of the programmable impedance device is based on a threshold value of the memory cell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.