Bipolar-MOS driver circuit
View Patent ↗The present invention relates to electronic driver circuits, and more particularly, to low power electronic driver circuits having low manufacturing costs. The present invention is a circuit design that utilizes two transistor types that can be manufactured together thereby reducing the number of processing steps and masks and resulting in lower cost.
1. A non-CMOS electronic circuit for driving a memory array, the non-CMOS electronic circuit comprising:
a bipolar transistor;
a MOS transistor functionally connected to a base of the bipolar transistor;
a capacitor functionally connected to the MOS transistor and the base of the bipolar transistor; and
a plurality of additional MOS transistors, at least one of which is electrically connected to at least one of the bipolar transistor or the MOS transistor,
wherein (i) current flows through an emitter-base junction of the bipolar transistor only after a voltage on a gate of the MOS transistor is applied and until the capacitor is fully charged, and (ii) a type of the MOS transistor and each of the plurality of additional MOS transistors is the same, the type being selected from the group consisting of NMOS and PMOS.
2. The non-CMOS electronic circuit of claim 1 , wherein the MOS transistor is an NMOS transistor and the bipolar transistor is a PNP transistor.
3. The non-CMOS electronic circuit of claim 1 , wherein the MOS transistor is a PMOS transistor and the bipolar transistor is an NPN transistor.
4. The non-CMOS electronic circuit of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of additional MOS transistors comprises a reset transistor, a terminal of which is connected between the MOS transistor and the capacitor, for discharging the capacitor in response to a voltage applied to an input of the reset transistor.
5. The non-CMOS electronic circuit of claim 1 , wherein the capacitor comprises a MOS transistor configured as a capacitor.
6. The non-CMOS electronic circuit of claim 1 , further comprising a memory array electrically connected to the bipolar transistor.
7. The non-CMOS electronic circuit of claim 6 wherein said memory array is removable and interchangeable.
8. The non-CMOS electronic circuit of claim 6 , wherein the memory array comprises a non-volatile storage element comprising a chalcogenide alloy.
9. The non-CMOS electronic circuit of claim 6 , wherein the memory array comprises a non-volatile one-time-programmable storage element.
10. The non-CMOS electronic circuit of claim 6 , wherein the memory array comprises a cross-point array.
11. The non-CMOS electronic circuit of claim 6 , wherein the memory array comprises a plurality of cross-point arrays arranged three-dimensionally.
12. The non-CMOS electronic circuit of claim 6 , wherein the memory array comprises a plurality of memory cells each comprising a memory MOS transistor, a type of all of the memory MOS transistors being the same as the type of the MOS transistor and each of the plurality of additional MOS transistors.