Qualcomm Incorporated

Chulmin Jung

Sei Seung Yoon

Changho Jung

Fahad Ahmed

Arun Babu Pallerla

Rahul Sahu

Anil Chowdary Kota

Bin Liang

Po-Hung Chen

Keejong Kim

Sharad Kumar Gupta

Hochul Lee

Pradeep Raj

David Li

Dhvani Sheth

Xiao Chen

Esin Terzioglu

Jung Pill Kim

Venugopal Boynapalli

Rui Li

Chi-Jui Chen

Daniel Lawrence Stasiak

Martin Saint-Laurent

Ritu Chaba

Mukund Narasimhan

Sanjay Bhagawan Patil

Derek Yang

Sung Son

Hanil Lee

Jais Abraham

Ayan Paul

Chen-ju Hsieh

Gregory Ameriada Uvieghara

Rakesh Vattikonda

Shih-Hsin Jason Hu

Nishith Nitin Desai

Bharat Kumar Rangarajan

Harshat Pant

Steven Mark Millendorf

Yandong Gao

Sonia Ghosh

Rakesh Misra

Raghav Gupta

Darshit Mehta

Robert Henry Hoem

Jason Cheng

Hari Ananthanarayanan

Chun-Yen Lin

Seohee Kim

Christol Barnes

Greg Seok

Martin Pierre Saint-Laurent

A memory is provided with a pair of banks including a first bank of bitcells and a second bank of bitcells. An I/O circuit for the pair of banks includes a shared write path configured to couple a write driver input signal to the first bank of bitcells responsive to an assertion of a write enable signal for the first bank of bitcells and to couple the write driver input signal to the second bank of bitcells responsive to an assertion of a write enable signal for the second bank of bitcells. The I/O circuit also includes a shared read path configured to couple a data bit output signal from the first bank of bitcells to a sense amplifier responsive to a de-assertion of the write enable signal for the first bank of bitcells and to couple a data bit output signal from the second bank of bitcells to the sense amplifier responsive to a de-assertion of the write enable signal for the second bank of bitcells. The shared read and write paths are further configured to operate simultaneously so that a write operation to one of the banks may occur while a read operation occurs to another one of the banks.

High-speed and area-efficient parallel-write-and-read memory

A memory is provided with a pseudo-differential sense amplifier for single-endedly sensing a first read bit line from a first bank of bitcells. The sense amplifier compares a voltage of the first read bit line to a voltage of a pre-charged second read bit line from a second bank of bitcells to make a bit decision for a read operation through the first read bit line to the first bank of bitcells.

Pseudo-differential de-glitch sense amplifier

A system includes a comparator having a first input, a second input, and an output. The system also includes a first voltage divider having an input and an output, wherein the input of the first voltage divider is coupled to a first power rail, and the output of the first voltage divider is coupled to the first input of the comparator. The system also includes a second voltage divider having an input and an output, wherein the input of the second voltage divider is coupled to a second power rail, and the output of the second voltage divider is coupled to the second input of the comparator. The system further includes a power multiplexer coupled to the first power rail, the second power rail, and a first circuit, and a control circuit coupled to the output of the comparator and the power multiplexer.

Power multiplexer

An integrated circuit is disclosed that includes a power supply multiplexer for selecting between a first power supply voltage and a second power supply voltage to provide a selected power supply voltage to a memory. A controller includes a comparator stage having a comparator with switchable inputs so that the comparator stage may control a binary state of a first output signal responsive to whether the first power supply voltage is greater than the second power supply voltage plus a voltage offset of the comparator. Similarly, the comparator stage may control a binary state of a second output signal responsive to whether the first power supply voltage is greater than the second power supply voltage minus the voltage offset. The controller controls the selection by the power supply multiplexer responsive to the binary states of the first and second output signals.

Power level comparator with switching input

A memory is provided in which a scan chain covers the redundancy logic for column redundancy as well as the redundancy multiplexers in each column. The redundancy logic includes a plurality of redundancy logic circuits arranged in series. Each redundancy logic circuit corresponds to a respective column in the memory. Each column is configured to route a shift-in signal through its redundancy multiplexers during a scan mode of operation.

Memory with scan chain testing of column redundancy logic and multiplexing

A memory is provided that includes bitcell VDD boosting to increase a read margin. In some implementations, the positive boost for the bitcell VDD may be provided by a capacitor that is also used for negative boosting of a write driver.

Memory with bitcell power boosting

A memory is provided with a plurality of column groups and two redundant column groups. If there are two defective columns in the plurality of column groups, the plurality of column groups may be divided into a no-shift region, a one-shift region, and a two-shift region. The memory includes a plurality of input/output circuits corresponding to the plurality of column groups. Each input/output circuit may provide a data input signal during a write operation and receive a data output signal during a read operation. Each input/output circuit also includes a switch matrix. In the no-shift region, the switch matrix couples the input/output circuit to a core in the corresponding column group. In the one-shift region, the switch matrix couples the input/output circuit to a core in a subsequent column group. In the two-shift region, the switch matrix couples the input/output circuit to a core in a next-to-subsequent column group.

Memory with double redundancy

Apparatuses and methods to reduce leakage current are presented. The includes a switch circuit configured to power a circuit block; a delay circuit configured to delay enabling the switch circuit powering the circuit block and to be powered down; and a bypass circuit configured to bypass the delay circuit to disable the switch circuit powering the circuit block. The method includes powering, by switch, a circuit block; powering down a delay circuit; and bypassing, by a bypass circuit, the delay circuit to disable the switch circuit powering the circuit block.

Power supply circuit with reduced leakage current

A pseudo-triple-port memory is provided with read datapaths and write datapaths. The pseudo-triple-port memory includes a plurality of pseudo-triple-port bitcells, each pseudo-triple-port first bitcell having a first read port coupled to a first bit line, a second read port coupled to a second bit line, and a write port coupled to the first bit line and to the second bit line.

Method of pseudo-triple-port SRAM datapaths

A memory is provided that includes a self-timed memory circuit that controls the isolation of a sense amplifier from a column selected by a column multiplexer until the completion of a bit line voltage difference development delay. The self-timed memory circuit also controls the release of a pre-charge for the sense amplifier responsive to the completion of the bit line voltage difference development delay.

Memory with a sense amplifier isolation scheme for enhancing memory read bandwidth

A memory is provided that is configured to practice a sleep mode without retention in which a both bitcell array and a memory periphery are powered down responsive to an assertion of sleep mode without retention control signal. The sleep mode without retention control signal is also asserted during a DVS scan to power down the bitcell array. The memory includes a power management circuit that responds to an assertion of a DVS scan control signal to prevent the assertion of the sleep mode without retention control signal from causing a power down of the memory periphery during the DVS scan. The memory periphery may thus be thoroughly tested by the DVS scan because leakage current from the bitcell array is prevented by the powering down of the bitcell array.

Memory with efficient DVS controlled by asynchronous inputs

Various implementations provide systems and methods for reading data from memory bit cells. An example implementation includes a read circuit that provides a single-ended output from a sensing stage. The single-ended output is received by a reset-set (RS) latch, which also receives a virtual bit line signal. The single-ended output and the virtual bit line signal provide complementary inputs to the RS latch, and the RS latch stores a sensed bit, and the sensed bit may be driven onto a data bus.

Memory with single-ended sensing using reset-set latch

A memory is provided that is configured to practice two different modes of read operation, such as both a normal read operation and a burst-mode read operation. In one example, the memory is a pseudo-dual-port memory. The memory may include an address comparator to perform a time-division multiplexing to first compare a read address to a stored address and then to compare a write address to the stored address.

Pseudo-dual-port SRAM with burst-mode address comparator

Pseudo-triple-port SRAM datapaths

Growing community of inventors

San Diego, CA, United States of America

Chulmin Jung