Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Byung-Heon Kwak

Sang-seok Kang

Sang-Seok Kang

Byung-chul Kim

Kyu-Chan Lee

Jin-Seok Lee

Jae-Hoon Joo

Hong-Beom Kim

Yong-Jin Park

Jae-hoon Joo

Kyung-moo Kim

A bit line pre-charge circuit of a semiconductor memory device includes a pre-charge circuit connected between a pair of bit lines for pre-charging the pair of bit lines in response to a pre-charge control signal and a pre-charge voltage transmitting circuit for transmitting a pre-charge voltage to the pre-charge circuit in response to the pre-charge control signal. A voltage drop in a pre-charge voltage generation line may be prevented when a short circuit is formed between a word line and a pair of bit lines, and current consumption during a standby operation of the semiconductor memory device may also be reduced, by preventing current from flowing from the pair of bit lines to the pre-charge voltage generation line.

Bit line pre-charge circuit of semiconductor memory device

A burn-in stress circuit for a semiconductor memory device. A burn-in enable signal generator generates a burn-in enable signal in response to a plurality of control signals. A wordline predecoder generates a wordline driving voltage for driving a wordline in response to the burn-in enable signal and another a plurality of control signals. A wordline decoder applies the wordline driving voltage to the wordline in response to the burn-in enable signal and another plurality of control signals. To reduce the stress testing time by stressing multiple rows of a memory array simultaneously, all of the wordlines (rows) are stressed and or tested at the same time. To select all of the wordlines, the wordlines are selected sequentially, but each selected wordline is held in a selected state by a latching mechanism while all of the other wordlines are being selected as well. When all of the wordlines (or a desired subset) have been selected, the burn-in stress test begins.

Burn-in stress circuit for semiconductor memory device

A voltage clamping circuit for a semiconductor memory device which is capable of rapidly coping with the demand of the user. The voltage clamping circuit includes PMOS transistors connected in series between an external supply voltage terminal and a node on an output line of a DC voltage generator, a control PMOS transistor having a channel connected at both ends thereof respectively to the node on the output line and a node between the second and third ones of the series-connected PMOS transistors, and a pad connected to a control electrode of the control PMOS transistor. The pad is selectively connected to a supply voltage in a first state and to a ground voltage in a second state, thereby controlling a clamping interval of the clamping means to be variable. The first state is a state requiring a longer clamping interval than that of the second state.

Voltage clamping circuit for semiconductor devices

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Suwon, South Korea

Byung-Heon Kwak