Abstract: A substrate bias pump is provided with a signal controlled circuit for coupling a negatively charged pump node to a substrate with a negligible voltage loss therebetween. A transistor, connected as a capacitor, with a source and a drain connected together for receiving a pump signal, and a gate connected to the pump node, avoids adding parasitic capacitance to the pump node.

Abstract: A substrate bias voltage regulator selectively provides one of two predetermined substrate bias voltage levels in response to a timing signal. The selection of substrate bias voltage level is achieved via a reference generator circuit which provides one of two predetermined reference voltages to a control circuit which regulates the substrate bias voltage to the selected level.

Abstract: A substrate bias regulator useful for controlling a variable output oscillator and/or a substrate bias voltage generator is provided to control the substrate voltage on a semiconductor chip. A series of field effect transistors are arranged in a manner to sense the substrate voltage and to provide an output to regulate the substrate voltage. One of the series field effect transistors has its gate electrode connected to reference potential ground which tends to make the regulator independent of transistor thresholds.

Abstract: A balanced differential circuit is provided which is useful as an address buffer in digital memories. The circuit is illustrated as a single ended input circuit having complementary outputs. Capacitors are used to couple imbalancing signals into the circuit. Through selective timing of load devices within the circuit power dissipation is kept to a minimum.

Abstract: There is provided a read-only memory having a plurality of storage locations wherein more than one binary digit can be stored. The ROM employs field effect transistors having various gate sizes so that the current through the field effect transistors can be controlled by the gain of the transistor. The different levels of current through the different storage locations provide more than two distinct states for each storage location.

Abstract: A signal generating circuit is provided which provides an output signal in response to an input signal. The output signal has minimum delay with respect to the input signal. The signal generating circuit has an inverter to receive the input signal. A cross coupled latch is coupled to the inverter and provides the output signal. A DC load stage is used as a load for the cross coupled latch. A transistor is coupled to the output signal to pull the output signal low upon command. Control circuitry is coupled to the transistor and helps precondition the signal generating circuitry so that it can respond to the input signal with minimum delay.

Abstract: There is provided a quiet row select circuit for holding unselected word lines or row select lines in a memory array at a predetermined voltage potential. Transistors are used to couple each row select line to the predetermined voltage potential wherein the adjacent row select lines at least one of the adjacent select lines is always coupled to the predetermined voltage when in an unselected state. A transistor is also used to couple each of the adjacent row select lines together and this transistor is enabled whenever the adjacent row select lines are non-selected so that both row select lines are coupled together to the predetermined voltage level.

Abstract: There is provided a circuit capable of speeding up a signal that has a positive slope, dv/dt>0. The circuit detects or senses the slope, amplifies the slope and feeds back a signal to enforce the pull up of the positive going signal. The circuit is also capable of handling complementary signals and when the positive going signal is being pulled up its complement is pulled down. The positive going signal is capacitively coupled into the circuit.

Abstract: There is provided a dynamic output buffer useful for providing output data from a memory. The output buffer includes a cross coupled sense amplifier having inputs and outputs. The outputs of this sense amplifier are coupled by output transistors to the output of the dynamic output buffer. The outputs of the cross coupled sense amplifier are also coupled to dynamic load devices which are used to prevent the outputs from deteriorating when the inputs are shunted or clamped to ground. The inputs are clamped to ground by transistors which are controlled by timing signals and thereby insure that data stored by the cross coupled sense amplifier will not be lost.

Abstract: There is provided a write circuit which is held in a disabled state until data is available to be written into the memory. This circuit is particularly useful for memories having one data in buffer and more than one memory block wherein each memory block has a write circuit to couple data in from the data in buffer. The write circuit has an input transfer device which is maintained in a disabled condition by an address signal until it is addressed. The output of the transfer device is maintained in a discharged state by the complement of the column address strobe. The output of the transfer device is coupled by a latch circuit to bit sense common lines in the memory.

Abstract: A quiet column decoder is provided which is useful in semiconductor memory systems. The quiet column decoder prevents glitches from being coupled into the silicon substrate during the period of time that the sense amplifiers are sensing data on the bit sense lines. The quiet column decoder has double clocked NOR gates which allows the address lines to be continuous non-multiplexed lines. The double clocked NOR gate has two transistors for precharging a first and a second node within the NOR gate. Another transistor is coupled between the second node and a voltage reference terminal to serve as an enabling device for the NOR gate. The first node of the NOR gate serves as an output for the column decoder.

Abstract: A digital memory array address predecoder is provided in combination with an address decoder. The predecoder permits a reduction in the number of transistors used in the decoder thereby maximizing the utilization of silicon area of an integrated circuit memory. This invention has particular application to a MOS integrated circuit decoder.

Abstract: A latching circuit with at least one node which is precharged by a precharge signal and discharged by the latching of a particular state in the latch. The at least one node is fed back to a control electrode of a transistor which is in series with an input terminal of the latching circuit. The feedback from the at least one node controls operation of the series transistor so that an input signal appearing on the input terminal can be locked out when the latching circuit has a desired logic signal latched into it.

Abstract: A four-IGFET memory cell is utilized as a static (or DC) memory cell rather than as a dynamic memory cell. When the memory cell is in the standby mode an intermediate voltage is applied to a selection conductor coupled to the gates of the gating IGFETS of the memory cell. The intermediate voltage applied to the "X" selection conductor under standby conditions is slightly in excess of two IGFET threshold voltages, and is sufficient to maintain the stored logical state, yet causes very little power to be dissipated by the memory cell. A full logical "1" level is applied to the selection conductor during either a read operation or a write operation if the memory cell is selected, i.e. is addressed by the decoding circuitry in response to chip select and address inputs of a memory chip incorporating the memory cell. If the memory cell is unselected during a read or write operation, a logical "0" is applied to the selection conductor.

Abstract: There is provided a dynamic output buffer useful for providing output data from a memory. The output buffer includes a cross coupled sense amplifier having inputs and outputs. The outputs of this sense amplifier are coupled by output transistors to the output of the dynamic output buffer. The outputs of the cross coupled sense amplifier are also coupled to dynamic load devices which are used to prevent the outputs from deteriorating when the inputs are shunted or clamped to ground. The inputs are clamped to ground by transistors which are controlled by timing signals and thereby insure that data stored by the cross coupled sense amplifier will not be lost.

Abstract: There is provided a dynamic output buffer useful for providing output data from a memory. The output buffer includes a cross coupled sense amplifier having inputs and outputs. The outputs of this sense amplifier are coupled by output transistors to the output of the dynamic output buffer. The outputs of the cross coupled sense amplifier are also coupled to dynamic load devices which are used to prevent the outputs from deteriorating when the inputs are shunted or clamped to ground. The inputs are clamped to ground by transistors which are controlled by timing signals and thereby insure that data stored by the cross coupled sense amplifier will not be lost.