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:
Jul. 02, 2002
Filed:
Feb. 01, 2001
Dale A. Potter, Beaverton, OR (US);
Ravindar M. Lall, Portland, OR (US);
Lattice Semiconductor Corp., Hillsboro, OR (US);
Abstract
A sense amplifier is provided that mitigates the effect of threshold voltage mismatch within the sense amplifier. The sense amplifier has an inverter pair coupled to the input terminals, with a resistive element coupled across output terminals of the inverter pair. Inverter gain stages following the inverter pair are coupled to a current limiting circuit to monitor and limit the current flowing through the inverter gain stage immediately following the inverter pair. The current limiting circuit allows the sense amplifier to be biased such that speed is improved while limiting power dissipation to acceptable levels, even under undesirable process, temperature, and power supply variations.