Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.

Oki Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

Nobuhiro Kai

Hitoshi Kokubun

The present invention provides a sense amplifier including a current sense circuit that outputs a detection voltage corresponding to an electric current intended for comparison, a current sense circuit that outputs a reference voltage corresponding to an electric current for reference, and a comparison circuit that compares the detection voltage and the reference voltage and outputs the result of comparison thereby. In the sense amplifier, the current sense circuit is operated in accordance with a chip control signal, and the current sense circuit is operated by a delay chip control signal obtained by delaying the chip control signal by a predetermined time by means of a delay circuit. Thus, since the current sense circuit outputs a predetermined reference voltage when the operation of the current sense circuit is started, the detection voltage rapidly converges on a predetermined level without performing such a feedback operation as to repeat its abrupt rise and fall.

Sense amplifier

Read access to a memory device is controlled by comparing an input control code with a predetermined code stored in the memory device. The comparison is performed inside the memory device, and read access is enabled or disabled according to the result. The control code can be used to select one of several memory devices connected to a common bus, or to provide security for information stored in the memory device.

Growing community of inventors

Miyazaki, Japan

Nobuhiro Kai