Leakage tolerant sense amplifier

摘要

A leakage tolerant sense circuit for use in an electrically programmable and erasable read only memory (EEPROM) is disclosed. In a reference portion of a sense cycle, the leakage tolerant sense amplifier utilizes the sum of a reference current and any leakage current to establish a reference voltage. In the subsequent sense portion of the sense cycle, the leakage tolerant sense amplifier utilizes the sum of a memory cell current and any leakage current to establish a read voltage. The read voltage is compared with the reference voltage to determine the logic stored within the memory cell.