Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices – circuits – and – Specific signal discriminating without subsequent control – By amplitude
Patent
1994-10-21
1996-07-02
Heyman, John S.
Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices, circuits, and
Specific signal discriminating without subsequent control
By amplitude
327538, 36518901, 36518908, 36518911, 365210, G01R 1900
Patent
active
055326234
ABSTRACT:
A sense amplifier includes: a pull-down device which contains a reference cell which is structurally identical to the PLD cells being sensed; and a pull-up device connected to form a current mirror which causes a saturation current of the pull-up device to be zero or greater than the current through the sensed cell. The pull-down device has a saturation current which tracks the current through the sensed cell. When current flows through the sensed cell, saturation current through the pull-up device exceeds the saturation current through the pull-down device, and an output node is pulled up. When no current flows through the sensed cell, no current flow through the pull-up device, and the pull-down device pulls the output node down. As a result, the sense amplifier exhibits a variable trip point which tracks variations cause by changes in device fabrication process, temperature, and power supply voltage. The reference cell in the sense amplifier conducts a current only during sensing, and therefore consumes no standby power.
REFERENCES:
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patent: 4063224 (1977-12-01), Kirschner
patent: 4223394 (1980-09-01), Pathak et al.
patent: 4301535 (1981-11-01), McKenny et al.
patent: 4404659 (1983-09-01), Kihara et al.
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patent: 5042011 (1991-08-01), Casper et al.
Advani Manik
Trinh Cuong
Heyman John S.
MacPherson Alan H.
Millers David T.
Waferscale Integration Inc.
Wells Kenneth B.
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