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. 05, 2011
Filed:
Nov. 13, 2009
Fanglin Zhang, Fremont, CA (US);
Jong Park, Campbell, CA (US);
Man Mui, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Alexander Chu, San Francisco, CA (US);
Seungpil Lee, San Ramon, CA (US);
Fanglin Zhang, Fremont, CA (US);
Jong Park, Campbell, CA (US);
Man Mui, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Alexander Chu, San Francisco, CA (US);
Seungpil Lee, San Ramon, CA (US);
SanDisk Technologies Inc., Plano, TX (US);
Abstract
In a non-volatile memory system, a voltage generator provides a voltage to a gate of a voltage-setting transistor which is used in a sense circuit to set an initial voltage at a sense node. At the end of a sense period, a final voltage of the sense node is compared to a trip point, which is the threshold voltage of a voltage-sensing transistor. To account for temperature variations and manufacturing process variations, the voltage generator includes a transistor which is matched to the voltage-setting transistor, and a transistor which is matched to the voltage-sensing transistor. As a result, a voltage swing between the initial voltage and the trip point is constant, even as the initial voltage and trip point vary. In a particular implementation, the voltage generator uses a cascode current mirror circuit, and receives a reference current from a band gap voltage circuit.