Atmel Corporation

Skhynix Inc.

Other

Elpida Memory, Inc.

Ps4 Luxco S.a.r.l.

Longitude Semiconductor S.a.r.l.

Marco Passerini

Stefano Sivero

Stefano Surico

Simone Bartoli

Fabio Tassan Caser

Andrea Sacco

Massimiliano Frulio

Monica Marziani

Miriam Sangalli

Giovanni Bellotti

Yong Tae Kim

Mirella Marsella

Moon Soo Sung

Chiara Missiroli

Kyu Tae Park

Maria Mostola

Osama Khouri

Nicola Maglione

Dario Melchionni

Francesco Mannino

Alex Pojer

Fablo Tassan Caser

Simone Bartoll

Giulio Maria Iadicicco

Onur Aker

Andrea Grande

Stefano Malacrida

Luigi Paone

Lorenzo Bonuccelli

A charge pump circuit is provided, comprising: a first charge pump having an input terminal for receiving a supply voltage and configured to boost the received supply voltage to provide at an output terminal of the first charge pump a first charge pump voltage; a second charge pump having an input terminal coupled to the output terminal of the first charge pump for receiving the first charge pump voltage and configured to boost the received first charge pump voltage to provide at an output terminal of the second charge pump a second charge pump voltage, and a voltage drop sensing device configured to detect drops in the first charge pump voltage and to deactivate second transistors of bypass units associated to the disabled charge pump stages when a drop in the first charge pump voltage is detected.

Charge pump circuit related to overvoltage

Disclosed herein is a regulator for a non-volatile memory. The regulator comprises a high voltage supply terminal, a low voltage supply terminal, an output terminal, a ground terminal and an internal node. The regulator further comprises an input amplifier inserted between the low voltage supply terminal and the ground terminal and outputting a first output voltage at a first intermediate output node according to a reference voltage and a feedback voltage provided at its negative and positive input terminals, respectively; a mirror circuit forming two current paths between the internal node and the ground terminal and between the internal node and a second intermediate output node respectively; and a cascode block coupled between the high voltage supply terminal and the internal node and operating in response to a voltage at the second intermediate output node of the regulator where the two current path is formed by the mirror circuit.

High voltage regulator

A non-volatile memory device comprises memory cells, a first regulator, a second regulator, a first switch, a second switch and capacitor coupling switches. The first regulator comprises a first capacitor, and generates a first voltage at a first node connected to a first subset of the memory cells, to provide the first voltage to the first subset. The second regulator comprises a second capacitor, and generates a second voltage at a second node. The first switch selectively couples the second node to a second subset of the memory cells, to provide the second voltage to the second subset. The second switch selectively couples the first node to the second subset to also provide the first voltage to the second subset. The capacitor coupling switches selectively couple the second capacitor in parallel to the first capacitor when the first switch is deactivated, and the second switch is activated.

Non-volatile memory device

Disclosed herein is a charge pump architecture in which boosting capacitors of adjacent stages are connected only by NMOS type transistors and comprising a first stage receiving a first voltage and outputting an internal voltage; a second stage receiving the internal voltage and outputting a second voltage at an output terminal, and an auxiliary stage connected to the output terminal, the first stage and second stage including a first type of MOS transistors transferring the voltage from input node internal boosting nodes and being cross-coupled; a second type of MOS transistors with their gate biased by a third type of MOS transistors and fourth type of MOS transistors; the third type of MOS transistors connecting the gate of the second type of MOS transistors; and the fourth type of MOS transistors connecting the gate of the second type of MOS transistors.

Charge pump architecture

A switching architecture provides input voltage signals from input voltage lines to a plurality of global word lines connected to word lines of a memory array in a memory device. The switching architecture includes a first switching block receiving a first set of positive voltages used to bias unselected word lines and being connected to a first output line providing a first output bias voltage, and a second switching block receiving a second set of positive voltages and a third set of negative voltages used to bias selected word lines and being connected to a second output line providing a second output bias voltage. A plurality of final switches are input connected to the first and second output lines and are output connected to a respective global word line.

Switching architecture for a NAND flash memory device and a high voltage switch circuit

Disclosed herein is an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for converting an input analog voltage to an output digital code, the ADC comprising a first node of the input analog voltage; nodes of a plurality of reference voltages; a plurality of comparators, inputs of each comparator being coupled to the first node and a node of a corresponding reference voltage of the plurality of reference voltages; a logic circuit block for receiving outputs of the plurality of comparators and generating the output digital code; and a voltage stabilizer, terminals of the voltage stabilizer being coupled with the first node and a node of a first reference voltage among the plurality of reference voltages.

Analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with improved power disturbance reduction

A temperature sensor includes a first current generating circuit configured to generate a first current being constant regardless of temperature changes, a cascode circuit configured to generate a cascode voltage, a second current generating circuit configured to generate a second current being in inverse proportion to temperature, and a compensated voltage output circuit configured to output a compensated voltage having various temperature coefficients in response to the first current and the second current.

Temperature sensor

Devices and circuits for high voltage switch (HVS) configurations. HVS may pass high voltage without suffering voltage drops. HVS may also guarantee safe operations for p-mos transistors. HVS may not sink current in its steady state. Further, HVS may select between two or more different voltage values to be passed onto the output node even after the high voltage has already been fully developed on the high voltage supply line.

Cascaded high voltage switch architecture

Disclosed herein is a device comprising a first terminal for a first clock signal, a second terminal for a second clock signal substantially complementary to the first clock signal, a third terminal for a third clock signal, a fourth terminal for a fourth clock signal substantially complementary to the third clock signal, a first logic gate to produce a first intermediate signal, a second logic gate to produce a second intermediate signal, a first delay circuit to produce a third intermediate signal, and a second delay circuit to produce a fourth intermediate signal, and a first output circuit coupled to the first and second delay circuits to produce the third and fourth clock signals respectively at the third and fourth terminals.

Clock generator

Disclosed here in a method that comprises performing an erase operation on multiple cells in a memory device, the performing comprising applying an erase voltage to the multiple cells, bit lines coupled to the multiple cells being thereby charged up; and discharging the bit lines by coupling the bit lines to a discharging line through a DC path.

Method and circuit to discharge bit lines after an erase pulse

Devices and circuits for voltage reference architectures that can increase the PSRR parameter by improving the saturation margin for an output transistor. For example, a device can include a current source coupled between a first power supply line and a circuit node, a voltage production circuit coupled between the circuit node and a second power supply line to produce a plurality of voltages respectively at voltage nodes thereof, a multiplexer coupled to the voltage nodes of the voltage production circuit and the output node and configured to select and output one of the voltages to the output node, and a control circuit configured to supply the one of the voltages to the circuit node.

PSRR in a voltage reference circuit

An apparatus and method for improving the performance of an electronic device is disclosed. An idle voltage state is introduced by an adaptive voltage generator when providing or removing a high voltage signal from a line or a node in a circuit. The idle state reduces the undesirable effects of switching disturbances caused by sudden voltage changes in a line or node.

Adaptive regulator for idle state in a charge pump circuit of a memory device

Various embodiments include memory devices and methods having first memory cells and second memory cells coupled to the first memory cells in a string arrangement, first word lines configured to apply a first voltage to gates of the first memory cells during a verify operation of the first memory cells, and second word lines configured to apply a second voltage to gates of the second memory cells during the verify operation.

Erase verify for memory devices

A flash memory includes input/output buffers, a memory array having memory cells coupled to the input/output buffers, and row and column decoders, and a voltage-generator circuit coupled to the row and column decoders. A microcontroller is coupled to the command user interface. Switch-instruction circuitry selectively provides instructions to the microcontroller from the read-only memory and from off chip through on-board t-latches coupled to the input/output buffers under control of a command user interface.

Growing community of inventors

Lozza, Italy

Marco Passerini