1.5 V high speed read operation and low power consumption circuit technology for EPROM and flash-EEPROM

A very low voltage (1.5 V) read operation and low power consumption EPROM (electrically programmable read-only memory) has been integrated into a 0.8 μm CMOS process for consumer-oriented ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) applications. These characteristics are accomplished by a new dynamic read circuit which consists of a flip-flop sense amplifier and a word-line booster circuit. High-speed read cycle time of 150 ns at 2-V and a wide operating voltage range from 1.5-V to 6-V are achieved. This circuit technology is applicable to Flash-EEPROM (electrically erasable PROM). An 8-bit microcontroller with 60 K-byte EPROM was developed using this technology. It is suitable for a battery operating system supplied minimum voltage of 1.8-V by two nickel-cadmium batteries