The present disclosure relates to integrated circuits, and more particularly, to a sense amplifier circuit for current sensing in a memory structure and methods of manufacture and operation. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a circuit including: a sensing circuit including a first set of transistors, at least one data cell circuit, and a reference cell circuit; a reference voltage holding circuit comprising a second set of transistors and a bitline capacitor; and a comparator differential circuit which receives a data sensing voltage signal from the sensing circuit and a reference voltage level from the reference voltage holding circuit and outputs an output signal.

A singled ended current sense amplifier circuit including an input stage having a bitline node, a sense node and a feedback circuit comprising a feedback inverter configured to provide an amplified voltage from the bitline node. The feedback inverter may include first and second NMOS transistors serially connected to a feedback node and first and second PMOS transistors serially connected to the feedback node. The feedback circuit may include a third NMOS transistor having a gate terminal connected to the feedback node and a drain terminal connected to the sense node. The input stage may include a third PMOS transistor operating as a current source to generate a sense current which flows in a current sensing path between the sense node and the bitline node. The input stage may act as a regulator to keep the voltage at the bitline node constant.

A system and method for operating a memory cell is provided. A non-volatile memory storage device includes an array of memory cells of differential or single-ended type. In an embodiment, a regulator is coupled to a sense amplifier. The regulator is configured to generate a voltage to gate terminals of one or two transistors of the sense amplifier. In the differential type, the voltage is generated such that the first bias current and the second bias current have a current value equal to the sum of a maximum current flowing in a memory cell being in a RESET state and a fixed current. In the single-ended type, the regulated voltage is generated such that the first bias current and the second bias current have a current value equal to the sum of a fixed current and the reference current generated by the reference current source across temperature.

Aspects of the present disclosure provide a method for regulating an integration current of a sensing amplifier. The sensing amplifier includes a first input transistor and a second input transistor, wherein a source of the first input transistor and a source of the second input transistor are coupled to a source node. The method includes pulling a current from or sourcing the current to the source node, measuring the integration current, comparing the measured integration current with a reference signal, and adjusting the current pulled from or sourced to the source node based on the comparison.

Metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor offset-cancelling (OC), zero-sensing (ZS) dead zone, current-latched sense amplifiers (SAs) (CLSAs) (OCZS-SAs) for sensing differential voltages are provided. An OCZS-SA is configured to amplify received differential data and reference input voltages with a smaller sense amplifier offset voltage to provide larger sense margin between different storage states of memory bitcell(s). The OCZS-SA is configured to cancel out offset voltages of input and complement input transistors, and keep the input and complement input transistors in their activated state during sensing phases so that sensing is not performed in their “dead zones” when their gate-to-source voltage (Vgs) is below their respective threshold voltages. In other aspects, sense amplifier capacitors are configured to directly store the data and reference input voltages at gates of the input and complement input transistors during voltage capture phases to avoid additional layout area that would otherwise be consumed with additional sensing capacitor circuits.

Disclosed are TCAM device and operation method thereof. The operation method of the TCAM device comprises: applying a select voltage on one of a plurality of first signal lines, and applying an pass voltage on the rest of the first signal lines, wherein the TCAM device comprises an IMS array, the IMS array comprises a plurality of memory units, the memory units are arranged as a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, a plurality of control terminal of each row of the memory units are coupled to the first driving circuit via a first signal line, each column of the memory units are serially connected to form a memory unit string, each of the memory unit string is coupled to the second driving circuit via a second signal line; and applying a plurality of searching voltage corresponding to a target data to the second signal lines.

Methods for precharging bit lines using closed-loop feedback are described. In one embodiment, a sense amplifier may include a bit line precharge circuit for setting a bit line to a read voltage prior to sensing a memory cell connected to the bit line. The bit line precharge circuit may include a first transistor in a source-follower configuration with a first gate and a first source node electrically coupled to the bit line. By applying local feedback from the first source node to the first gate, the bit line settling time may be reduced. In some cases, a first voltage applied to the first gate may be determined based on a first current drawn from the first bit line. Thus, the first voltage applied to the first gate may vary over time depending on the conductivity of a selected memory cell connected to the bit line.

An electronic device includes a semiconductor memory unit. The semiconductor memory unit may include a cell array suitable for including a plurality of resistive memory cells which are arranged in a plurality of column lines and a plurality of rows lines, and a read circuit. The read circuit is suitable for, in a read operation, generating a bias current based on bias information, supplying the bias current to a sensing node, supplying a read current from the sensing node to a column line selected from among the plurality of column lines, and sensing data stored in a selected memory cell coupled to the selected column line using a voltage level at the sensing node. The bias information is determined and stored in the semiconductor memory unit before the read operation starts.

The present invention provides a semiconductor device including a nonvolatile memory of which the memory size of a data area and the memory size of a code area can be freely changed. The semiconductor device according to one embodiment includes a nonvolatile memory which can switch between a reference current reading system which performs data read by comparing a current flowing through a first memory cell as a read target and the reference current and a complementary reading system which performs data read by comparing currents flowing through a first memory cell and a second memory cell storing complementary data, as a read target.

In a memory, a first node holds first data from a first cell. A second node holds second data from a second cell near the first cell. A differential circuit includes a first current path passing a first current corresponding to a voltage of the first node and a second current path passing a second current corresponding to a voltage of the second node, and outputs an output signal corresponding to a voltage difference between the first and the second nodes from an output part. A first register latches the output signal and output the signal as a hold signal. A first offset part is connected to the first current path and offsets the first current when the hold signal has a first logic level. A second offset part is connected to the second current path and offsets the second current when the hold signal has a second logic level.