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. 24, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 28, 1999
Subramani Kengeri, Cupertino, CA (US);
Chitranjan N Reddy, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Alliance Semiconductor Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides an apparatus and a method of reducing the time to drive the I/O lines by the sense amplifiers. In one embodiment of the present invention, local sense amplifier segments and associated local I/O lines are provided. The I/O lines are short in length and are connected to the sense amplifiers in the associated sense amplifier segments. The reduction in the length of the local I/O lines reduce the effective RC impedance of the I/O lines. Thus, the local sense amplifiers are smaller and drive the local I/O lines much faster. The present invention further provides global I/O lines connected to the local I/O lines. In a second embodiment of the present invention, the global I/O lines are driven by a second stage amplifier. In a third embodiment of the present invention, one global I/O line is provided for every local I/O line.