公开(公告)号：DE602004003465D1

公开(公告)日：2007-01-11

申请号：DE602004003465

申请日：2004-02-19

Applicant: ST MICROELECTRONICS SA ,  ST MICROELECTRONICS SRL

Inventor： DEMANGE NICOLAS ,  CONTE ANTONINO ,  PRECISO SALVATORE ,  SIGNORELLO ALFREDO

IPC: G11C7/14 ,  G01N27/00 ,  G11C7/06 ,  G11C7/10 ,  G11C16/28

Abstract: A sensing circuit (120) for sensing currents, including at least one sense amplifier (122), comprising: a measure circuit branch (132i), having a measure node for receiving an input current (Ic) to be sensed, for converting the input current into a corresponding input voltage (V-); at least one comparison circuit branch (132o), having a comparison node for receiving a comparison current (Igs), for converting the comparison current into a corresponding comparison voltage (V+); and at least one voltage comparator (140) for comparing the input and comparison voltages, and means (N3s,135; N3s,135';N3s,135" ) for generating the comparison current based on a reference current (Ir), said means comprising: at least one voltage generator (135;135';135'') for receiving the reference current and for generating a corresponding sense amplifier biasing voltage (Vsab); and means (N3s) for converting the sense amplifier biasing voltage into the comparison current. The at least one voltage generator includes a first circuit branch (232i), having a first node for receiving the reference current, for converting the reference current into a corresponding reference voltage (Vref), a second circuit branch (232o), having a second node for receiving a regulation current (Ii), in current mirror configuration with the first circuit branch for mirroring a current (Img) corresponding to the reference current, the second circuit branch generating by conversion a non-regulated voltage (Vgen) corresponding to the mirrored current and to the regulation current, and voltage regulator means (N3g,240) receiving the reference voltage and the non-regulated voltage for regulating the sense amplifier biasing voltage by controlling the non-regulated voltage through the regulation current.