METHOD AND CIRCUIT FOR GENERATING READOUT REFERENCE SIGNAL FOR NON-VOLATILE MEMORY CELL

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the method and circuit which perform readout of a memory cell of which the maximum power source voltage is high but the minimum power source voltage is kept low. SOLUTION: The current flowing the array cell to be read out which forms part of a non-volatile memory array and shows the characteristic (ITC, ITW) having a specified gradient is amplified N-fold (ITCNB, ITWNB) and compared with the reference current (IR1) having two partial characteristics which are composed from a first section that is elongated between the threshold value (VTR) and trigger value (VS) both specified and shows a gradient equal to that of the memory cell characteristic and from a second section that is elongated from the trigger value (VS) and shows a gradient N-times larger than the gradient of the cell characteristic, namely the amplified gradient of the cell characteritic.