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:
Feb. 25, 2003
Filed:
Aug. 21, 2000
Applicant:
Inventor:
Michael S. Briner, San Jose, CA (US);
Assignee:
Micron Technology, Inc., Boise, ID (US);
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 1/134 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 1/134 ;
Abstract
A fast-sensing amplifier for a flash memory including a plurality of floating-gate memory devices and having a column line selectively coupled to the devices is disclosed. The column line is quickly discharged to ground before a read-biasing and amplifying circuit quickly pulls up the line to the read-bias potential at a particular memory device. This potential is compared to a sense-reference potential by a differential amplifier within the fast-sensing amplifier. The binary state of the particular memory device is provided as the output of the fast-sensing amplifier.