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:
Oct. 03, 2000
Filed:
Dec. 17, 1998
Jon Allan Faue, Colorado Springs, CO (US);
Harold Brett Meadows, Colorado Springs, CO (US);
Nippon Steel Semiconductor Corp., Chiba, JP;
United Memories, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO (US);
Abstract
A current sensing differential amplifier with high rejection of power supply variations and method for an integrated circuit memory device which allows the amplifier's differential voltage level and speed to track that of the sense amplifier supplying the information, thereby achieving the needed margin for critical synchronous timing. The reliability of the differential amplifier is also increased due to the provision of a larger differential signal and higher supply voltage levels. In a preferred embodiment, an n-channel transistor serves as a regulator with its drain terminal coupled to an unregulated supply voltage source ('V.sub.cc '). The gate of the transistor is then coupled to a regulated supply voltage ('V.sub.ccp ') which is a function of the voltage supply for the sense amplifier. The source of the transistor is connected to the sources of the p-channel transistors in the main amplifier which provide feedback to the main amplifier. Consequently, the source side of the feedback transistors cannot go to a voltage higher than V.sub.ccp -V.sub.tn (the threshold voltage of the n-channel transistor), even for wide variations in voltage on the V.sub.cc voltage source.