摘要 |
<p>A single-ended sense amplifier (Fig. 1) having a precharge circuit (20) for maintaining a stable voltage on a bitline (19), a sensing circuit (30) coupled to the bitline (19) for sensing an amount of current flowing into the bitline (19), a direct current amplification circuit (40) electrically coupled to the sensing circuit (30) for amplifying the current sensed on the bitline (19), a current-to-voltage conversion circuit (50) for converting the sensed current to a voltage and a voltage amplification circuit (60) for amplifying the voltage at the sense amp output (80). The sense amplifier can be implemented using standard CMOS components (Fig. 2) and provides improved access time at low power supply voltage, high robustness to process variations, and the ability to sense very low currents.</p> |