Pre-charge circuit with reduced process dependence

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8928367-B2
Application number	US-201313780619-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 28, 2013
Priority date	Feb 28, 2013
Publication date	Jan 6, 2015
Grant date	Jan 6, 2015

Abstract

A pre-charging circuit, such as can be used to pre-charge a data bus, is largely process independent. A push-pull type of arrangement is used, where the output of the pre-charge circuit is initially connected to a supply level through one transistor, then connected to ground by another transistor. These transistors can be controlled by one or more comparators that have as inputs a reference level and feedback from the output. The reference level is generated by a circuit that tracks the threshold voltage of the other devices in the circuit in order to reduce process dependency of the output level. The circuit can also include a device to provide an extra VDD assist to the output.

First claim

It is claimed:

1. A pre-charge circuit, comprising:
a supply transistor connected between a first supply level and a pre-charge output node;
a reference generator block to provide a reference voltage level;
a pre-charge driver block, connected to receive the reference voltage level and having an output connected to a gate of the supply transistor, the pre-charge driver block including:
a first transistor connected between a second supply level and the output of the pre-charge…

Assignees

• Sandisk Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Wang Sung-En
• Pan Feng

Classifications

• H03K17/223 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L25/028

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H03K17/145 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic