The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 20, 2000
Filed:
Jan. 22, 1999
Yoshihiro Tada, Kyoto, JP;
Rohm Co., Ltd., Kyoto, JP;
Abstract
It is an object of the present invention to provide a data storing device capable of increasing the capacity of the storage while restricting undesirable growth in the size of the device. A sensing amplifier SA is used commonly for element blocks CB0 and CB1. In this way, the device can be downsized in a direction of 'Y' shown in FIG. 1 in comparison with the case when dedicated sensing amplifiers are provided to each of these blocks respectively. Also, the dummy cell DC00 of the element block CB0 and the dummy cell DC10 of the element block CB1 composes a reference value generating part. That is, the reference value generating part is used commonly for the element block CB0 and the element block CB1. In this way, the device can also be downsized in the direction of 'Y' in comparison with the case when dedicated reference value generating parts are provided to each of these blocks respectively. Further, memory cells such as MC01, . . . , as well as the dummy cells DC00, and DC01 have the same structure as the memory cell MC00. As a result, not much dead space is produced during the layout of the cells by employing the same arrangement between the memory cells and the dummy cells.