Patent ID: 7957197
Filing Date: 2011-06-07
Classification: G11C

Abstract:
1. A sensing circuit for sensing a conduction current of a memory cell among a group of non-volatile memory cells being sensed in parallel and providing the result thereof to a data bus, comprising: a node; a precharge circuit coupled to the node for charging the node to an initial voltage; an intermediate circuit coupled to the node and connectable to the memory cell, whereby current from the precharge circuit can be supplied to the memory cell; a comparator circuit coupled to the node to perform a determination of the conduction current by a rate of discharge at the node; a data latch coupled to the comparator circuit to hold the result of said determination; and a transfer gate coupled to the data latch to supply the result latched therein to the data bus independently of the node, wherein the precharge circuit can be charged up concurrently with supplying the latched result to the data bus.