Siemens Microelectronics Limited

Franz Freimuth

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.

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Williston, VT, United States of America

Franz Freimuth