A voltage buffer for capacitive loads isolates the load from the feedback
loop. Using a variation of a follower arrangement, a second transistor
outside of the feedback loop introduced. The current to the load is
supplied through the second transistor, which is connected to have the
same control gate level as the transistor in the feedback loop and
provide an output voltage based on the reference input voltage. The
output voltage is dependent upon the input voltage, but the load is
removed from the feedback loop. By removing the load from the feedback
loop, the loop is stabilized with only a very small or no compensating
capacitor, allowing the quiescent current of the buffer to be reduced and
the settling time to be improved. One preferred use of the present
invention is to drive the data storage elements of a non-volatile memory.