| abstract |
A plurality of sense amplifiers are connected to a selected bit line. Each sense amplifier is supplied with a residual current corresponding to a current flowing in a memory cell and a reference current serving as a reference for a threshold voltage of the memory cell to sense the currents. Operations of the sense amplifiers are controlled such that different sense margins are provided to different sense amplifiers and a margin failure is detected according to coincidence/non-coincidence in logical level between output signals of the sense amplifiers. The address of a memory cell with the margin failure is registered. With such a construction, a threshold voltage defect of a non-volatile memory cell is compensated for to enable internal reading of memory cell data with correctness. |