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. 06, 2004
Filed:
Jun. 28, 2002
Bradley J. Garni, Austin, TX (US);
Mark F. Deherrera, Tempe, AZ (US);
Mark A. Durlam, Chandler, AZ (US);
Bradley N. Engel, Chandler, AZ (US);
Thomas W. Andre, Austin, TX (US);
Joseph J. Nahas, Austin, TX (US);
Chitra K. Subramanian, Austin, TX (US);
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
A sense amplifier ( ) is provided for sensing the state of a toggling type magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) cell without using a reference. The sense amplifier ( ) employs a sample-and-hold circuit ( ) combined with a current-to-voltage converter ( ), gain circuit ( ), and cross-coupled latch ( ) to sense the state of a bit. The sense amplifier ( ), first senses and holds a first state of the cell. The cell is toggled to a second state. Then, the sense amplifier ( ) compares the first state to the second state to determine the first state of a toggling type memory cell.