U.S. Philips Corporation

Leonardus C Pfennings

Hendrikus J Veendrick

Adrianus T Van Zanten

Peter H Voss

Cathal G Phelan

Thomas J Davies

Cormac M O'Connell

Hans Ontrop

Antonius H Nillesen

Frits A Steenhof

Johannes G Raven

Wilhelmus C Gubbels

A static RAM memory is optimized for speed. The memory is divided into major memory matrices and each major memory matrix is divided into memory blocks. The memory blocks are divided in groups that per group have address bits in common, which however are per group coupled to separate pads or sets of pads. These pads are interconnected on the package to common package pins.

Fast static random access memory with high storage capacity

An integrated circuit has an on-chip supply voltage reducer, and includes a voltage converter for periodically charging the integrated circuit capacitance. The voltage converter may include a power switching transistor which is connected between an external supply terminal and an internal supply terminal and which is controled by a detector amplifier which senses the voltage across the integrated circuit capacitance connected to the internal supply terminal and which turns the switching transistor on and off depending on the value sensed, with a given hysteresis.

Integrated circuit with on-chip voltage converter

Data are frequently transmitted via a dual bus line by means of differential signals which are evaluated by a differential amplifier, particularly for reasons of protection against interference. However, such a differential amplifier only has a limited input voltage range, or a dead voltage range of the input signals within which it is not capable of operating. To prevent the voltages on both bus lines from getting into this dead voltage range, either due to a common-mode interference signal on the bus lines or due to a voltage dip in the feed voltage of the differential amplifier, the two bus lines are connected in accordance with the invention to an adjusting circuit which changes the voltages of both bus lines by the same amount in the direction out of the dead voltage range. This prevents unspecified conditions of the differential amplifier without significantly influencing the differential signal on the two bus lines. The application for an integrated memory is described.

Circuit arrangement for a dual bus line

In relatively large systems of (integrated) circuits, data signals can experience a delay which is in the order of magnitude of a clock-pulse period. The receiving circuit (i.e. receiving the data signal) then receives the data signal too late (the clock pulse has ceased) and can at that moment no longer take over the data signal for further processing or transport. In the system according to the invention the clock pulses are led via a delaying element (for example, the inverting circuits in series) to the receiving circuit (slave of the master/slave flip-flop). The data output of the receiving circuit is connected to a data input of another circuit (master of another master/slave flip-flop), which receives the undelayed clock pulses, the data delay between the receiving circuit and the other circuit being negligible. The data delay is thus distributed over two clock pulses.

Logic circuits with data resynchronization

In a one-electrode/bit SPS CCD memory, a capacity reduction can be obtained by phase shift of one or more clock voltages. For an n-phase system with N groups of n electrodes, the storage capacity can thus be reduced stepwise from at most N(n-1) bits to N(n-2) bits, etc. The stay time of the bits stored is reduced by a corresponding factor, as a result of which the clock frequency in the series registers need not be changed. By this reduction, the memory is more particularly suitable for storing television pictures both in the 625 lines system and in the 525 lines system.

Charge-coupled device with varible storage capacity and constant clock

Memory cells in an integrated memory circuit are arranged in blocks and selected by block selection gates. This method of activation offers the advantage that the memory cells are accessed faster and that the power consumption is lower than in a memory which is not subdivided into blocks, because only a small group of memory cells is activated per selection operation. A block selection circuit is provided in which selection gates of two neighboring rows of memory cells have one common transistor. As a result of the multiple use of contact areas and the use of a mirror-symmetrical architecture, the lay-out can make optimum use of the available substrate surface area.

Integrated memory circuit having a block selection circuit

In a memory cell which is connected between two bit lines, information is stored after selection by causing a first bit line to convey a signal which is complementary to that on a second bit line. It is known, starting from a single data supply line which may convey either a high or a low signal, to provide a memory circuit per column with inverting means so as to be able to charge both bit lines complementarily. Here, this complementary charging is done by connecting, upon selection, the first bit line to the data supply line and connecting a transistor with its main electrodes between ground and the second bit line, which transistor receives the data at its control electrode. This transistor then constitutes, with the bit line load, an inverter. Lay-out aspects relate to the common use of substrate area of two adjacent columns and the common use of a contact in the shown circuit arrangement.

Integrated memory circuit having complementary bit line charging

A multiplex circuit includes a cascade connection of flip-flop elements for producing a high data-rate multiplex signal. In order to avoid disturbances caused by parallel loading of the flip-flop circuits, the slave-section of the flip-flop generating the multiplex signal is not parallel loaded, which results in a continuous output signal.

Integrated electronic multiplex circuit

In integrated circuits the delay of the signal transitions has to lie within specified limits. This delay is partly determined by variations in the manufacturing process (process scatter). To compensate for the effect of this scatter a load capacitance is connected via a switching element to a node which is to be influenced in the integrated circuit. The switching element receives a reference voltage which is dependent on the manufacturing process and is generated by reference source, so that the node capacitance 26 is connected to the node for a longer or shorter time, depending on the process scatter.

Integrated circuit having capacitive process-scatter compensation

The invention relates to a CCD input and reference charge generator, in which the occurrence of electron injection into the substrate (due to cross-talk to the substrate) and hence undesired signal distortions is prevented. For this purpose, the generator is provided with a voltage divider (26) which is constituted at least for a part (28) by a resistance element arranged outside the substrate, for example, by a polycrystalline silicon resistor. Thus, it is achieved that input diode zones (11) are no longer connected to the substrate voltage.

Charge-coupled device with reduced signal distortion

Charge-coupled devices are very sensitive to clock cross-talk due to the overlap between successive electrodes. The influence of this cross-talk is reduced when the clock lines are periodically connected to ground by a low-ohmic impedance. For this purpose, each clock line is controlled from a buffer, whose output is connected to a clock line. A clamping transistor is connected between the output and ground. When this clamping transistor is controlled by means of the output signal and at the same time by the input signal of the buffer, the output is clamped to ground at the instant at which the cross-talk is expected by means of only a single clamping transistor.

Integrated circuit having reduced clock cross-talk

An integrated logic circuit includes a push-pull amplifier stage, in which by means of a bootstrap circuit the potential at the gate of the 'push' transistor is brought above the supply voltage so that the output voltage of the amplifier lies above the supply voltage minus the threshold voltage of the push transistor. In order to prevent the charge from leaking away after the bootstrap capacitance has been charged via an enhancement transistor, the enhancement transistor is cut off by means of the 'low' input signal. A second bootstrap circuit (between the input and the gate of the enhancement transistor) ensures that the first bootstrap capacitance is charged up to the full supply voltage because the latter gate electrode is lifted above the supply voltage by the second bootstrap.

Logic boatstrapping circuit having a feedforward kicker circuit

Digital integrated C-MOS circuit in which two cross-coupled P-MOS transistors are connected by two separation transistors (N-MOS) to two complementary switching N-MOS transistor logic networks. The gate electrodes of the separation transistor are connected to a reference voltage source. The switching speed of the C-MOS circuit is increased in that (a) the voltage sweep across the logic networks is reduced; (b) each P-MOS transistor, which is connected by a separation transistor to a junction of the logic network to be charged, is slightly conducting and so is 'ready' to charge such junction, and (c) the separation transistor between the fully conducting P-MOS transistor and the junction to be discharged in the second logic network constitutes a high impedance which prevents the conducting P-MOS transistor from charging that junction.

Digital integrated circuit comprising complementary field effect

A device is described for electronically executing a mathematical operation, being Z=KA+(1-K)B. It is also described how this device or how several of such devices can be used for the design of a number of realizations, such as a recursive filter, a digital mixer etc. The basic idea is the electronic implementation of a mathematical function for binary variables.

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Eindhoven, Netherlands

Leonardus C Pfennings