Patent Abstract:
A control clocks generator and method thereof for a high speed sense amplifier generates control clocks by utilizing RC delay and gate delay, in combination with reference sensing delay induced from a reference sense amplifier, and thereby, is tracking well for the high speed sense amplifier with process, temperature and voltage variations.

Full Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
   This application is a divisional of application Ser. No. 10/458,260, which was filed on Jun. 11, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,839,296. 

   FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention relates generally to a control clocks generator, and more particularly, to a control clocks generator and method thereof for a high speed sense amplifier (SA). 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   Sense amplifier is typically used to read out the state, e.g., “0” or “1”, of the memory cell in a memory array, for example, ROM. A ROM array contains probably millions of memory cells arranged in rows and columns, each one of the memory cells in a column has a source that could be connected to a column source line, and during the sense amplifier is reading a selected memory cell, the column source line connected to the selected memory cell could be connected to a reference voltage or grounded. The drain of each one of the memory cells in a column is connected to an individual bit line, also known as column drain line, and during the sense amplifier is reading the selected memory cell, the column drain line connected to the selected memory cell is connected to the input of the sense amplifier. The control gate of each one of the memory cells in a row is connected to a word line, and the word line connected to the selected memory cell is connected to a predetermined voltage in the reading process. 
   During the reading operation, the current flowing through the selected memory cell is compared with a reference current to determine the selected memory cell is programmed with a “0” or a “1”. The reference circuit is coupled to the input of a current sense amplifier whose output is coupled to one input of a differential amplifier. When reading the selected memory cell, the differential amplifier compares the output voltage of the sense amplifier with the output voltage of another current sense amplifier coupled to the selected memory cell. If the reference circuit comprises a memory cell that is substantially identical to the selected memory cell, then the balance of the current sense amplifier is usually necessary to be broke for a reference current to be between the current of the selected memory cell being programmed with “0” and the current of the selected memory cell being programmed with “1”. 
   Precision control of the control clocks in timing is one of the fators for high speed operation in a sense amplifier. Unfortunately, due to the different process corners, temperature and voltage variations, the control clocks lack of well tracking capability and lead the sense amplifier difficult to be improved for the speed thereof. Referring to for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,196 issued to Yang, the control circuit consists of three blocks including the address transition pulse (ATP) generator, the precharge signal (PCB) generator and the latch signal (LATB) generator. The ATP signal is used as the trigger source of the control clocks, such as the precharge signal PCB, the latch signal LATB and the enable signal SAB of the sense amplifier. The precharge signal PCB should be the slower one of the word line delay and the bit line pull-up delay. For a flat ROM, the word line delay is much longer than the bit line pull-up delay, and thus, the word line delay is usually used to control the precharge signal PCB, and the width of the latch signal LATB should be larger than that of the precharge signal PCB. Further, the timing between the precharge signal PCB and latch signal LATB should be properly selected to latch correct data, and it is related to the sense time that is directly proportional to the memory cell current. The latch signal LATB is produced by adding a delay to the precharge signal PCB, in which the delay is controlled by the memory cell current from the mini-array, and the precharge signal PCB raises after several nanoseconds after the latch signal LATB to for correct data to be latched. In prior arts, the control signals are generated by referring to the memory cell current of the mini-array use in combination with RC (i.e., word line) delay and gate delay. Nevertheless, due to the different process corners, temperature and voltage variations, the control clocks lack of well tracking capability and as a result, it is difficult to improve the speed of the sense amplifier. 
   Therefore, it is desired a scheme to generate control clocks for high speed sense amplifier. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   One object of the present invention is to provide a control clocks generator and method thereof for a high speed sense amplifier, by which control clocks are generated by use of the combination of RC delay, gate delay and reference sensing delay from the reference sense amplifier. As a result, it is obtained well tracking capability, regardless of process corners, temperature and voltage variations. 
   In a control clocks generator, according to the present invention, the address transition pulse signal is served as the trigger source to produce a precharge signal by a first RC delay and a latch signal by a combination of RC delay, gate delay and reference sensing delay induced from a reference sense amplifier, and the latch signal is further applied with a gate delay to produce a sense amplifier enable signal. In a prefered embodiment, the circuit to produce the latch signal includes three paths, among which the main path applies RC delay, gate delay and reference sensing delay to the address transition pulse signal, and the other two are used to add guard bands in front of and after the delay of the main path, respectively, for the latch signal to be located in a safe region. In particular, the second path applies RC delay and gate delay to the precharge signal such that the delay of the latch signal to the precharge signal is not over a maximum value, and the third path applies RC delay and gate delay to the address transition pulse such that the delay of the latch signal to the precharge signal is not smaller than a minimum value. 
   An improved sense amplifier is further provided to produce a sensing delay, which includes a reference data line to be coupled with the mini-array for memory cell current simulation. The improved sense amplifier seperates the precharge path and sense path, and connectes the precharge path and sense path with a common gated MOS pair, respectively, so as to adjust the sensing delay by changing the size ratio of the MOS pair. 
   As a result, the inventive control clocks generator and method has a sensing delay very close to the actual sensing delay, and thus provides the high speed sense amplifier with well tracking capability, regardless of process corners, temperature and voltage variations. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
       FIG. 1  shows a scheme to generate control signals PCB, LATB and SAB in a sense amplifier; 
       FIG. 2  is a prefered embodiment control clocks generator according to the present invention; 
       FIG. 3  is a prefered embodiment reference sense amplifier according to the present invention; 
       FIG. 4  shows a typical RC delay circuit; 
       FIG. 5  shows a typical gate delay circuit; and 
       FIG. 6  shows a timing diagram of the control signals according to the present invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 1  is a block diagram to illustrate a scheme to generate control signals for a sense amplifier, in which an address transition pulse (ATP) generator  10  produces an address transition pulse signal ATP in response to a chip enable signal PCEB, and then a clock generator  20  produces three control signals from the ATP, including precharge signal PCB, latch signal LATB and sense amplifier enable signal SAB. 
   A prefered embodiment for the clock generator  20  is shown in  FIG. 2 , which uses the address transition pulse signal ATP as a trigger source to produce the required control clocks. In the clock generator  20 , the two inputs of a NAND gate  21   a  are coupled with the address transition pulse signal ATP and its delayed signal through an RC delay  22   a , respectively, and then the output of the NAND gate  21   a  passes through an inverter  23   a  to produce the precharge signal PCB. The circuit to produce the latch signal LATB is more complicated, which includes three paths, Path 1 , Path 2  and Path 3 , and the delay thereof is dominantly determined by the Path 2  to connect the address transition pulse signal ATP and its delayed signal from an RC delay  22   b  to a NAND gate  21   b  together with an inverter  23   b , and to further apply a gate delay  26  and a reference sensing delay  27  to the output of the inverter  23   b . On the other hand, the Path 1  applies an RC delay  24  and gate delay  25  to the output of the inverter  23   a , and the Path 3  connects the address transition pulse signal ATP and its delayed signal from an RC delay  22   c  to a NAND gate  21   c  together with an inverter  23   c  and applies a gate delay  28  to the output of the inverter  23   c . Then the delays produced by these three paths Path 1 , Path 2  and Path 3  are combined to determine the latch signal LATB. In detail, after through an inverter  29 , the output of the reference sensing delay  27  is connected to a NOR gate  30  as well as is the output of the gate delay  28 , and the output of the NOR gate  30  is further coupled to an inverter  31  to be gated together with the output of the gate delay  25  by a NAND gate  32  and an inverter  33  to produce the latch signal LATB. In the operation, the timing of the latch signal LATB is dominantly controlled by the Path 2 , and the other two, Path 1  and Path 3 , add guard bands to the latch signal LATB, respectively, for the latch signal LATB to be in a safe region. In other words, the minimum delay of the latch signal LATB is controlled by the Path 3 , and the maximum delay is controlled by the Path 1 . The enable signal SAB for the sense amplifier is obtained by further applying a gate delay  34  to the output of the inverter  33 . 
   To achieve well tracking, the reference sensing delay  27  should be as close as possible to the sensing delay of the actual circuit, and  FIG. 3  provides an improved sense amplifier  40  for this purpose. In the sense amplifier  40 , the precharge path and sense path are separated. Particularly, the sense path is built up from the supply voltage VDD through MOS  47 ,  41  and  42  to the reference data line Dlref, and the precharge path is built up from the supply voltage VDD through MOS  48  and  42 R to the reference data line Dlref. The reference data line DLref is connected to the mini-array for memory cell current simulation. The NMOS  42  acts as a transmission transistor, and is common-gated with the MOS  42 R by a bias voltage Vx from the output of a NOR gate  43 . The precharge signal PCB is for the input IN of the sense amplifier  40 , and is applied on the gate of a PMOS  41 . The voltage on the sense node Vz passes through an inverter circuit composed of MOSes  44   a ,  44   b ,  45   a  and  45   b  and a latch circuit composed of inverters  46   a  and  46   b  to produce the output OUT. In the sense path, the PMOS  47  is connected as a diode to reduce the voltage swing of the sense node Vz and the sense time, without disturbing the precharge mechanism for the reference data line DLref, and the size of the NMOS  42  is increased in the safe range to improve the sense speed. Alternatively, the PMOS  47  as a diode could be replaced with an NMOS or a depletion NMOS. Furthermore, the precharge current could be adjusted by changing the size of the NMOSes  48  and  42 R for the reference data line DLref to be well controlled, without reducing the sense speed. The reference sensing delay produced by this sense amplifier  40  could be also adjusted by changing the size of the NMOSes  42  and  42 R. 
   Any commercial or conventional RC delay circuit can be employed for the RC delay shown in  FIG. 2 , and  FIG. 4  shows an example. The RC delay  50  of  FIG. 4  includes a series of inverters  51  and  52 , resistor  53  and inverters  56  and  57  between its input IN and output OUT, a MOS  54  arranged between the input of the inverter  56  and the reference voltage or ground with its gate connected to the input of the inverter  52 , and an NMOS capacitor  55  connected to the input of the inverter  56 . 
   Likewise, any commercial or conventional gate delay circuit can be employed for the gate delay shown in  FIG. 2 , and  FIG. 5  shows an example. The gate delay  60  of  FIG. 5  includes a series of inverters  61 ,  62 ,  64  and  66  between its input IN and output OUT. The input and the output of the inverter  64  are connected with NMOS capacitors  63  and  65 , respectively. 
     FIG. 6  is a timing diagram to illustrate the relationship among the control signals produced by the forgoing circuits. The address transition pulse signal ATP is first produced in response to chip enable signal PCEB and address signal ADD, and as mentioned in the above description, all the other control signals are produced according to the address transition pulse signal ATP. During period T 1 , the precharge signal PCB, latch signal LATB and sense amplifier enable signal SAB are produced, and due to the delays, the widths of the latch signal LATB and sense amplifier enable signal SAB are larger than that of the precharge signal PCB. During this period, the voltage of the sense node Vz will be pulled up to the level lower than the supply voltage VDD by a diode conductive voltage, for the diode  47  is inserted between the supply voltage VDD and PMOS  41 , and this period can be as the precharge period. Then, during period T 2 , the precharge signal PCB raises, and at this moment the voltage of the sense node Vz is changeable that will be sustained at high level or descended to a predetermined level depending on the data to be read out. Hence, this period could be as the sense period. During period T 3 , the latch signal LATB raises, and then the data is latched by the latch of the sense amplifier  40 . But the sense amplifier enable signal SAB raises a bit later than the latch signal LATB for the data to be latched properly. After period T 3 , the sense amplifier  40  could be turned off to decrease power consumption, and the output driver is turned on such that the correct data appear on the output bus, as designated by the data output DOUT in FIG.  6 . 
   While the present invention has been described in conjunction with preferred embodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope thereof as set forth in the appended claims.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6