A low-voltage sense amplifier with two-stage operational amplifier clamping for flash memory

A low-voltage sense amplifier with reference current generator utilizing two-stage operational amplifier clamp structure for flash memory is presented in this paper,capable of operating with minimum supply voltage at 1 V.A new reference current generation circuit composed of a reference cell and a two-stage operational amplifier clamping the drain pole of the reference cell is used to generate the reference current,which avoids the threshold limitation caused by current mirror transistor in the traditional sense amplifier.A novel reference voltage generation circuit using dummy bit-line structure without pull-down current is also adopted,which not only improves the sense window enhancing read precision but also saves power consumption.The sense amplifier was implemented in a flash realized in 90 nm flash technology.Experimental results show the access time is 14.7 ns with power supply of 1.2 V and slow comer at 125 ℃.