Cambridge Silicon Radio Limited

Justin Penfold

Rainer Herberholz

Ian Michael Sabberton

Luca Milani

William Pugsley

Kwangseok Han

Control circuitry for memory cells is described. In an embodiment, a breakdown detection circuit is described which is arranged to detect abnormally high currents indicative of a defective cell during programming of a memory cell through monitoring the impedance level at a terminal in the breakdown detection circuit. The breakdown detection circuit is connected between the device being programmed and ground and comprises three transistors, at least one of which is capable of withstanding the programming voltage in case of breakdown. Other embodiments describe a flag bit cell design, a memory array and methods of reading and writing from/to that array, and circuitry for biasing a memory word-line for both read and write operations. The embodiments may be used separately or in a combination.

Control circuitry for memory cells

A circuit for protecting a node () in an electronic device () from an electrostatic discharge comprising: a voltage rail () arranged to provide an predetermined voltage when the device is powered; a first switching device () connected between said node () and ground (); a second switching device () coupled to said node () and arranged to control the conductance of the first switching device () between said node () and ground (); wherein, the second switching device () is configured to, irrespective of whether the device is powered or not powered, (a) hold the conductance of the first switching device () low when the potential difference between the node () and the voltage rail () is within an operating range, and (b) hold the conductance of the first switching device () high in response to an overvoltage at the node () so as to allow current to flow from the node () to ground ().

Electrostatic discharge protection

A switch mode regulator includes a first switch for controlling a current supply to an output inductor of the regulator; a second switch for selectively providing a conductive path to ground for current flowing through the output inductor; and an inverting amplifier having an input connected to an output of the first switch and an output connected to a control input of the second switch. The switch mode regulator may alternatively include a first switch for controlling a current supply to an input inductor of the regulator; a second switch for selectively providing a conductive path to a load for current flowing through the input inductor; and an inverting amplifier having an input connected to an output of the first switch and an output connected to a control input of the second switch.

Growing community of inventors

Suffolk, United Kingdom

Justin Penfold