Apparatus and method for high-speed wordline driving with low area overhead
US6034913A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 19, 1997 |
| Grant date | Mar 7, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 19, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG11C11/4085
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Improved techniques for driving wordlines of a semiconductor memory device are described. Accordingly to the invention, a wordline 402 is driven by a wordline driver 406 at a first end and then provided with a small amount of additional circuitry 442 at the other end of the wordline. When the additional circuitry senses that the wordline is beginning to transition to an active state, the additional circuitry operates to assist or accelerate the transition of the wordline to the active state. Accordingly, the invention operates to rapidly transition wordlines to an active state while using only minimal amounts of die area. The invention is particularly well suited for dynamic random access memories.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.