Patent ID: 8547751

Claim:
A non-volatile storage device comprising: a bit line that is connected to a non-volatile storage element for storing an electrically re-writable logic value, the bit line having a voltage with a magnitude corresponding to the logic value stored in the storage element; a charging section that, when discriminating the logic value by performing a comparison of the magnitude of the voltage applied to the bit line to the magnitude of a reference voltage applied to a reference voltage line, charges the bit line to a voltage of equivalent magnitude to the reference voltage prior to performing the comparison; a voltage generation section that is connected between the reference voltage line and the bit line, the voltage generation section comprising a capacitance load for generating coupling charge when charging by the charging section has been performed, and employing the capacitance load to generate a voltage according to a difference between the magnitude of the voltage of the reference voltage line and the magnitude of the voltage of the bit line as a voltage expressing the comparison result; and a charge absorbing section for absorbing the coupling charge generated by the capacitance load.