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:
Mar. 09, 2004
Filed:
Apr. 02, 2002
Applicant:
Inventors:
Juergen T. Rickes, Cupertino, CA (US);
Hugh P. McAdams, McKinney, TX (US);
James W. Grace, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Assignee:
Other;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 1/122 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 1/122 ;
Abstract
A comparator-type sense amplifier compares a constant voltage that was read out of a FeRAM cell to a sequence of reference voltage levels. A multiple-comparison operation includes (a) reading out data to a bit line, (b) applying a first/next reference voltage, (c) comparing the bit line voltage to the applied reference voltage, and (d) repeating steps (b) and (c) one or more times. The multiple comparison operation can be used to characterize operation of an FeRAM cell, predict or detect an FeRAM cell that may introduce a bit error, or to read a multi-bit value from an FeRAM cell.