SENSING AMPLIFIER AND NONVOLATILE MULTIVALUE MEMORY DEVICE USING THE SENSING AMPLIFIER

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sensing amplifier with a wide output voltage range. SOLUTION: A sensing amplifier consists of a memory cell 1 in which multivalue information can be stored, a current mirror circuit 2 by which the drain current of the memory cell 1 corresponding to a drain voltage generated in accordance with the multivalue information is reversed, a transistor 3 which has the same construction as the memory cell 1 and to which the output current of the current mirror circuit 2 is supplied and a voltage generating circuit 4 which applies a voltage to the floating gate of the transistor 3. By switching the voltage of the voltage generating circuit 4 so as to match the charge in the floating gate of the transistor 3 with the charge in the floating gate of the memory cell 1, the impedance of the transistor 3 can be varied, so that an output voltage range can be widened.