US 7,679,415 B2Granted

Sense amplifier control circuit

AssigneeHynix Semiconductor Inc.

InventorSung Soo Chi

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Abstract

The present invention discloses a sense amplifier control circuit which controls the sense amplifier. A sense amplifier control circuit comprises a voltage comparing unit outputting delay control signals having a value corresponding to each of divided voltages obtained by dividing a potential of a power supply voltage and a pull-up control signal generating unit outputting an overdrive control signal and a pull-up control signal by an active signal and changing an enable pulse width of the overdrive control signal in response to the delay control signals, whereby it is possible to reduce current consumption caused by unnecessary overdrive operation and prevent a potential drop of the power supply voltage and thus provide operational stability of the semiconductor memory device by providing the overdrive control signal of which the enable pulse width is controlled in response to the potential of the power supply voltage.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A sense amplifier control circuit, comprising:

a voltage comparing unit receiving a power supply voltage and outputting delay control signals having values corresponding to each of a plurality of divided voltages obtained by dividing a potential of the power supply voltage, wherein the voltage comparing unit comprises:
a voltage dividing unit dividing the potential of the power supply voltage and outputting the plurality of divided voltages having sequential voltage levels;
a comparing unit comparing each of the divided voltages with a reference voltage and outputting corresponding comparing signals;
a delay control signal generating unit combining the comparing signals corresponding to the divided voltages having sequential adjacent potential levels to generate the delay control signals;
and
an output control unit controlling outputs of the delay control signals according to an enable signal;
and
a pull-up control signal generating unit receiving an active signal and outputting an overdrive control signal and a pull-up control signal according to the active signal, wherein the pull-up control signal generating unit changes an enable pulse width of the overdrive control signal in response to the delay control signals.

5 more elements

A sense amplifier control circuit, comprising:

a voltage comparing unit receiving a power supply voltage and outputting delay control signals having values corresponding to each of a plurality of divided voltages obtained by dividing a potential of the power supply;
and
a pull-up control signal generating unit receiving an active signal and outputting an overdrive control signal and a pull-up control signal according to the active signal, wherein the pull-up control signal generating unit changes an enable pulse width of the overdrive control signal in response to the delay control signals, wherein the pull-up control signal generating unit comprises:
a delay unit delaying and outputting the active signal according to the delay control signals;
and
a control signal generating unit combining the active signal with an output from the delay unit to generate the overdrive control signal and the pull-up control signal.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.