Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices – circuits – and – Specific signal discriminating without subsequent control – By amplitude
Reexamination Certificate
2007-08-31
2009-02-10
Le, Dinh T. (Department: 2816)
Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices, circuits, and
Specific signal discriminating without subsequent control
By amplitude
C327S333000, C327S052000, C365S154000
Reexamination Certificate
active
07489165
ABSTRACT:
A sense amplifier for use in a memory device and in a memory-resident system. The sense amplifier operates on a lower voltage consistent with the voltage range of the differential input data and the sense amplifier further operates on a higher voltage to level-shift the output signal concurrently with the sensing operation. The sense amplifier includes a pair of differential cross-coupled inverters whose inputs are coupled to receive the data from the memory. Once the input nodes of the cross-coupled inverters are charged, the cross-coupled inverters are further coupled to pull-up and pull-down circuits that span the higher voltage range for performing the level-shifting functionality. In order to recondition the sense amplifier for a subsequent sensing process, a clamp circuit shorts the level-shifted outputs together to prevent a higher voltage level from being inadvertently passed to the memory device when isolating pass gates are reactivated.
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Le Dinh T.
Micro)n Technology, Inc.
TraskBritt
LandOfFree
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