Etron Technology, Inc.

Jen Shou Hsu

Der-Min Yuan

Ming Hung Wang

Yao Yi Liu

The invention discloses a charge pump circuit control system comprising a level detector, a ring oscillator, and a charge pump circuit. The level detector detects the variation of the output voltage of the charge pump circuit for generating a control signal. The ring oscillator generates a plurality of clock signals according to the control signal, and the charge pump circuit generates the output voltage according to the plurality of clock signals.

Charge pump circuit control system

The invention discloses a decoupling capacitor circuit, comprising a plurality of coupled deep trench capacitors connected in series and a plurality of push-pull circuits. The decoupling capacitor circuit controls the voltage across each deep trench capacitor via the push-pull circuit so that it will not be influenced by the defect (leakage current) of the deep trench capacitor or the bias voltage of the parasitic devices.

Decoupling capacitor circuit

A negative voltage generator includes a current mirror unit, a control unit, a resistor, and a switching unit. The current mirror unit receives a first positive voltage from a first positive voltage source and a second positive voltage from a second positive voltage source and determines how to generate a first output current and a second output current according to the difference of a received positive reference voltage and the second positive voltage. The control unit generates a control signal whose value depends on the voltage variation of a negative voltage generated by a negative voltage source, and the on/off state of the switching unit is determined according to the control signal to keep the current passing through the switching unit constant and to generate a first output negative voltage having a constant level.

Negative voltage generator

Methods and circuits to reduce power consumption of DRAM local word-line drivers are disclosed. A first voltage converter provides a voltage VPP, which is lower than the voltage VPP required to operate a word-line of a DRAM cell array. A voltage detector monitors the voltage level of the local word-line driver. Once the voltage level VPPis reached on the local word-linedriver switching means as e.g. tri-state drivers put the final VPP voltage on the word line. This VPP voltage is the output of a second voltage boost converter. Putting the voltage in two stages on the word-line reduces the overall power consumption. The voltage level VPPhas to be carefully selected to find a compromised solution between current consumption and performance.

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Hsinchu, Taiwan

Jen Shou Hsu