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:
Dec. 07, 2004
Filed:
Feb. 14, 2003
William H. Owen, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Xicor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and circuit for programming a floating gate in a differential floating gate circuit to an input set voltage. The circuit includes a differential amplifier circuit for comparing the voltage on a floating gate with an input set voltage, and a gain stage for amplifying any voltage differential between those two voltages. During a set mode, an erase and a program tunnel device operate in a dual conduction mode for modifying the voltage on the floating gate. The output at the gain stage is used to modify the voltage across the erase tunnel device via a feedback loop until the differential floating gate circuit settles to a steady state condition such that the floating gate voltage is approximately equal to the input set voltage. Thereafter, during a read mode, the differential floating gate circuit may be reconfigured to preferably function as a voltage comparator with a built-in voltage reference.