Appeal No. 1997-3436 Page 2
Application No. 08/432,884
The invention at issue in this appeal is a sense
amplifier for use in an integrated circuit (IC) memory. An IC
memory includes many memory cells, which are arranged in rows
and columns. A column is a collection of memory cells along a
bit line pair. Each column is connected to a sense amplifier.
The sense amplifier senses the effect a memory cell has on the
bit line pair and amplifies a signal for reading data from the
memory cell. In addition, the sense amplifier drives the bit
line pair for writing data into the memory cell.
When conventional sense amplifiers are employed in large
memories, the amplifiers work inefficiently and slowly,
prolong access time, suffer patten sensitivities, and are
unstable. The invention aims to overcome these problems. In
particular, the inventive sense amplifier includes a latch
circuit coupled to a pair of bit lines of an IC memory and a
pair of local data write driver circuits coupled to the latch
circuit. The local data write driver circuits are coupled to
a data write control signal so that a power supply voltage may
be selectively applied, via the driver circuits, to the latch
circuit and to a corresponding bit line. A pass transistor is
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