Information Storage Devices, Inc.

Anthony Dunne

Hieu Van Tran

James Brennan, Jr

Peter Holzmann

Chun-Mai Liu

Albert V Kordesch

Kung-Yen Su

Boyce W Jarrett

Geoff Jackson

Nataraj S Bindiganavale

A power efficient high output swing operational ('HOOP') amplifier for integrated circuit analog signal processing is described. The operational amplifier includes a differential input stage and an output stage. The differential input stage is powered by a regular power supply while the output stage is powered by a voltage multiplier which results in a high voltage output swing without sinking significant power from the voltage multiplier. The high output voltage (e.g., 23 volts) is achieved using low voltage MOS devices. An output isolation technique is utilized to prevent possible latchup and contention. The operational amplifier also features a bias boot scheme to achieve a faster settling time from power up. In addition, the present invention provides realization of frequency compensation with highest possible breakdown and reduced noise coupling. A bias arrangement between input and output stages of the operational amplifier is used to further help reduce the power drawn from the voltage multiplier and decrease the settling time.

High output swing operational amplifier using low voltage devices

A trimbit circuit for flash memory integrated circuits is described. The trimbit circuit is used to store the addresses of bad rows and/or columns in flash memory arrays. Furthermore the trimbit circuit is used to store the trimbits for trimable circuits in the integrated circuit, i.e. voltage references, precision oscillator, etc. The invention includes a row of flash memory trimcells and a trimcell differential amplifier circuit. The trimcell differential amplifier circuit can serially shift in trimbits into a latch and serially shift out trimbits without having to program the flash memory trimcells. The final settings of the trimbits can be programmed by means of a high voltage buffer. A non-overlapping clock generator and additional logic is also included to control the circuit.

Trimbit circuit for flash memory integrated circuits

An analog recording and playback system using non-volatile flash memory. An array of flash memory cells is used to store an analog signal and retrieve the stored analog signal on a real-time basis. A plurality of column driver circuits are coupled to the columns of flash memory cells for simultaneous programming and reading. A programming algorithm is used to write the analog signal within an operating range of the flash memory cells since the operating range may shift due to process variations. The system includes trimbit circuits to provide a trimmable initial programming voltage, programming step, programming current, read current, and select gate voltage. The system further includes a Serial Peripheral Interface ('SPI') that interfaces with a host microcontroller. The host microcontroller can send a number of commands to the system through the SPI for efficient message management. These commands include the basic commands to record or playback and various addressing and message cueing options. The system utilizes row and column redundancy to increase production yield.

Recording and playback integrated system for analog non-volatile flash

Trimbit circuit for flash memory

An apparatus and method for message management using nonvolatile analog signal recording and playback is disclosed. The device is an integrated circuit with interface circuitry for use as a peripheral device to a microcontroller or a microprocessor-based system. The integrated circuit is complete with differential analog inputs, auto attenuation to improve signal quality, filter, fixed references including a band gap reference, trimming, memory array, multiple closed loop sample and hold circuits, column device, row decoder, address counters, master oscillator, chip function timing circuits, and a serial peripheral interface (SPI) and circuits on a single chip. The integrated circuit is interfaced with a host microcontroller through the SPI. The host microcontroller can send a number of commands to the integrated circuit through the SPI for efficient message management. These commands include the basic commands to record or playback and various addressing and message cueing options. The system utilizes redundancy to increase production yield. It also utilizes a high speed test mode to reduce production testing time.

Analog signal recording and playback integrated circuit and message

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Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Anthony Dunne