Abstract:
A voltage boosting device for speeding power-up of multilevel nonvolatile memories, including a voltage regulator (11) and a charge pump (13) and having an output terminal (10); the voltage regulator (11) having a regulation terminal connected to the output terminal (10), and an output (16) supplying a control voltage (V L ); the read charge pump (13) having an output connected to the output terminal (10) and supplying a read voltage (V R ). The device further includes an enable circuit (12) connected to the output (16) and having a pump enable output (17) connected to a charge pump enable terminal (13) and supplying a pump enable signal (PE). The pump enable signal (PE) is set at a first logic level so as to activate the charge pump (13) when the read voltage (V R ) is lower than a nominal value. In addition, the device generates a power-up sync signal (ATDS) which activates a read operation when the read voltage (V R ) reaches its nominal value and a chip enable signal (CE) is set at an active value.
Abstract:
A method for programming a multilevel non-volatile memory with a reduced number of pins, wherein at least one address pin (A1, A2) of the memory is used as a write synchronization signal.
Abstract:
The invention relates to a circuit structure (1) for reading data contained in an electrically programmable/erasable integrated non-volatile memory device, comprising a matrix (2) of memory cells (3) and at least one reference cell (4) for comparison with a memory cell (3) during a reading phase. The reference cell (4) is incorporated in a reference cells sub-matrix (5) which is structurally independent of the matrix (2) of memory cells (3). Also provided is a conduction path between the matrix (2) and the sub-matrix (5), which path includes bit lines (b1ref) of the submatrix (5) of reference cells (4) extended continuously into the matrix (2) of memory cells (3)
Abstract:
Described herein is an asynchronous serial dichotomic sense amplifier (10) comprising a first comparator stage (12) having a first input receiving the cell current (I CELL ) flowing in the multilevel memory cell (18), the content of which is to be read, a second input receiving a first reference current (I REF2 ), and an output supplying the first of the bits stored in the multilevel memory cell (18); a multiplexer stage (16) having a selection input (16c) connected to the output of the first comparator stage (12), a first signal input (16a) receiving a second reference current (I REF1 ), a second signal input (16b) receiving a third reference current (I REF3 ), and a signal output (16d) selectively connectable to the first or the second signal input (16a, 16b) depending on the logic level present on the selection input (16c); and a second comparator stage (14) having a first input receiving the cell current (I CELL ), a second input connected to the signal output (16d) of the multiplexer stage (16), and an output supplying the second of the bits stored in the multilevel memory cell (18).