Patent · US Expired

Boost word-line clock and decoder-driver circuits in semiconductor memories

US4678941A · kind A · utility

24Cited by
26References
6Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 25, 1985
Grant dateJul 7, 1987
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 25, 2005

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11C8/10
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A CMOS boost word-line clock and decoder-driver circuit which can be used for CMOS DRAM's with substrate bias in addition to VDD supply. A boost word-line clock circuit including simple CMOS inverters is used for the word-line boost and the possible voltage overshoot, which usually occurs because of capacitor two-way boost, can be completely eliminated. Also, the circuit can be triggered by a single clock. A high performance decoder circuit is provided in combination with the aforesaid CMOS boost word-line clock circuit, such decoder using NMOS pass-gate in the decoder driver and providing fast word-line boosting. The timing between the decoder and the word-line clock activation is not crucial.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.