Qualcomm Incorporated

Illumina Corporation

Xiao Chen

Chulmin Jung

Hanil Lee

Chen-ju Hsieh

Jung Pill Kim

Venugopal Boynapalli

Anil Chowdary Kota

Stephen Tanner

Chen Zhao

Shih-Hsin Jason Hu

Harshat Pant

Po-Hung Chen

Shile Zhang

Han-Yu Chuang

David Li

Dhvani Sheth

Sung Son

Ayan Paul

Tingting Jiang

Chi-Jui Chen

Seohee Kim

Christol Barnes

Gwenn Berry

Jessica Gordon

Yesha Shah

A system includes a comparator having a first input, a second input, and an output. The system also includes a first voltage divider having an input and an output, wherein the input of the first voltage divider is coupled to a first power rail, and the output of the first voltage divider is coupled to the first input of the comparator. The system also includes a second voltage divider having an input and an output, wherein the input of the second voltage divider is coupled to a second power rail, and the output of the second voltage divider is coupled to the second input of the comparator. The system further includes a power multiplexer coupled to the first power rail, the second power rail, and a first circuit, and a control circuit coupled to the output of the comparator and the power multiplexer.

Power multiplexer

An integrated circuit is disclosed that includes a power supply multiplexer for selecting between a first power supply voltage and a second power supply voltage to provide a selected power supply voltage to a memory. A controller includes a comparator stage having a comparator with switchable inputs so that the comparator stage may control a binary state of a first output signal responsive to whether the first power supply voltage is greater than the second power supply voltage plus a voltage offset of the comparator. Similarly, the comparator stage may control a binary state of a second output signal responsive to whether the first power supply voltage is greater than the second power supply voltage minus the voltage offset. The controller controls the selection by the power supply multiplexer responsive to the binary states of the first and second output signals.

Power level comparator with switching input

A memory is provided that includes bitcell VDD boosting to increase a read margin. In some implementations, the positive boost for the bitcell VDD may be provided by a capacitor that is also used for negative boosting of a write driver.

Memory with bitcell power boosting

A drain programmed read-only memory includes a diffusion region that spans a width of a bitcell and forms a drain of a first transistor and a second transistor. A bit line lead in a metal layer adjacent the diffusion region extends across the width of the bitcell. A first via extends from an upper half of the bit line lead and couples to a drain of the first transistor. Similarly, a second via extends from a lower half of the bit line and couples to a drain of the second transistor.

Low-leakage drain-programmed ROM

Various implementations provide systems and methods for writing data to memory bit cells. An example implementation includes a write circuit that couples both a bitline and a complementary bitline to power (VDD) by positive-channel metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistors. By using PMOS transistors instead of NMOS transistors at the applicable nodes, such implementations may avoid a voltage drop between VDD and the bitlines, thereby allowing the bitlines to reach a substantially full VDD voltage level when appropriate. Additionally, various implementations avoid dynamic nodes that share charge across NMOS transistors, thereby allowing a given bitline to reach a substantially full VDD voltage level when appropriate. Accordingly, some implementations may experience higher levels of writability and static noise margin than other implementations.

Memory write methods and circuits

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Xiao Chen