Patent · US Active

Semiconductor memory device comprising sense amplifier having P-type sense amplifier and N-type sense amplifiers with different threshold voltages

US7843751B2 · kind B2 · utility

9Cited by
12References
5Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 12, 2009
Grant dateNov 30, 2010
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 12, 2029

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH10B12/50
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A sense amplifier is constructed to reduce the occurrence of malfunctions in a memory read operation, and thus degraded chip yield, due to increased offset of the sense amplifier with further sealing down. The sense amplifier circuit is constructed with a plurality of pull-down circuits and a pull-up circuit, and a transistor in one of the plurality of pull-down circuits has a constant such as a channel length or a channel width larger than that of a transistor in another pull-down circuit. The pull-down circuit with a larger constant of a transistor is first activated, and then, the other pull-down circuit and the pull-up circuit are activated to perform the read operation.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.