Micron Technology Incorporated

Marvell International Limited

Intel Corporation

Marvellworld Trade Ltd.

Round Rock Research, LLC

Qiang Tang

Ramin Ghodsi

Xiaojiang Guo

Ali Feiz Zarrin Ghalam

Bo Wang

Eric N Lee

Chih-Hsin Wang

Guan Wang

Feng Q Pan

Hoon Choi

Michele Piccardi

Chang Wan Ha

Luigi Pilolli

Min She

Guanglei An

Ken Liao

Toru Tanzawa

Theodore T Pekny

Agatino Massimo Maccarrone

Kaveh Shakeri

Daesik Song

Venkat Narayanan

Pantas Sutardja

Aaron S Yip

Mark Alan Helm

Paolo Tessariol

Myung Jae Yoo

Steve Fang

Douglas Bardsley

Yonghua Song

Kalyan C Kavalipurapu

Jason Guo

Ruo-Gu Huang

Jiawei Chen

Chen Ma

Some embodiments include apparatuses and methods of forming the apparatuses. One of the apparatuses includes conductive materials located in different levels of the apparatus, dielectric materials located in different levels of the apparatus, a first conductive contact, and a second conductive contact. One of the conductive materials is between two of the dielectric materials. One of the dielectric materials is between two of the conductive materials. The first conductive contact has a length extending through the conductive materials and the dielectric materials in a direction perpendicular to the levels of the apparatus. The first conductive contact is electrically separated from the conductive materials. The second conductive contact contacts a group of conductive materials of the conductive materials.

Capacitors having vertical contacts extending through conductive tiers

Several embodiments of electrical circuit devices and systems with clock distortion calibration circuitry are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, an electrical circuit device includes clock distortion calibration circuitry to calibrate a clock signal. The clock distortion calibration circuitry is configured to determine when one or more duty cycle calibration (DCC) conditions are met. When the DCC condition(s) are met, the clock distortion calibration circuitry is configured adjust a trim value associated with at least one of first and second duty cycles of first and second voltage signals, respectively. In some embodiments, the clock distortion calibration circuitry is configured to calibrate at least one of the first and the second duty cycles of the first and the second voltage signals using the adjusted trim value to account for duty cycle distortion encountered across various voltages and/or temperatures while the electrical circuit devices and/or systems remain in a powered on state.

Autonomous duty cycle calibration

Memory including an array of memory cells might include an input buffer having calibration circuitry, a first input, a second input, and an output; and calibration logic having an input selectively connected to the output of the input buffer and comprising an output connected to the calibration circuitry, wherein the calibration logic is configured to cause the memory to determine whether the input buffer exhibits offset while a particular voltage level is applied to the first and second inputs of the input buffer, and, in response to determining that the selected input buffer exhibits offset, apply an adjustment to the calibration circuitry while the particular voltage level is applied to the first and second inputs until a logic level of the output of the selected input buffer transitions.

I/O buffer offset mitigation

A memory device includes a plurality of input/output (I/O) nodes, a circuit, a latch, a memory, and control logic. The plurality of I/O nodes receive a predefined data pattern. The circuit adjusts a delay for each I/O node as the predefined data pattern is received. The latch latches the data received on each I/O node. The memory stores the latched data. The control logic compares the stored latched data to an expected data pattern and sets the delay for each I/O node based on the comparison.

Write training in memory devices by adjusting delays based on data patterns

Methods of operating a memory, and memories having a controller configured to cause the memory to perform such methods, include applying a plurality of first voltage levels to an access line, applying a plurality of second voltage levels to a control gate of a string driver connected to the access line for a first portion of the plurality of first voltage levels with each second voltage level of the plurality of second voltage levels being greater than a respective first voltage level by a first voltage differential, and applying a plurality of third voltage levels to the control gate of the string driver for a second portion of the plurality of first voltage levels with each third voltage level of the plurality of third voltage levels being greater than a respective first voltage level by a second voltage differential less than the first voltage differential.

Adjusting voltage levels applied to a control gate of a string driver in a memory

I/O buffer offset mitigation while applying a same voltage level to two inputs of an input buffer

A system might include a first writing device and a second writing device. The first writing device might write first data to an array of memory cells in response to a first clock cycle of a clock signal. The write of the first data exceeds one clock cycle of the clock signal. The second writing device is in parallel with the first writing device. The second writing device might write second data to the array of memory cells in response to a second clock cycle of the clock signal. The second clock cycle follows the first clock cycle and the write of the second data exceeds one clock cycle of the clock signal.

Wave pipeline

Several embodiments of electrical circuit devices and systems with clock distortion calibration circuitry are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, an electrical circuit device includes an electrical circuit die having clock distortion calibration circuitry to calibrate a clock signal. The clock distortion calibration circuitry is configured to compare a first duty cycle of a first voltage signal of the clock signal to a second duty cycle of a second voltage signal of the clock signal. Based on the comparison, the clock distortion calibration circuitry is configured to adjust a trim value associated with at least one of the first and the second duty cycles of the first and the second voltage signals, respectively, to calibrate at least one of the first and the second duty cycles and account for duty cycle distortion encountered as the clock signal propagates through a clock tree of the electrical circuit device.

Internal clock distortion calibration using DC component offset of clock signal

Methods of operating apparatus, as well as apparatus configured to perform such methods, include checking whether power loss to the apparatus during programming of user data to a grouping of memory cells of the apparatus is indicated, and, when power loss is indicated, checking feature settings of the apparatus to determine a location of the apparatus containing an address of the grouping of memory cells, and recovering the address of the grouping of memory cells from the determined location.

Responding to power loss

Examples described herein can be used to calibrate resistances provided by pull-up and pull-down circuits in an output driver circuit. A first reference voltage can be determined and applied to set a resistance level of a pull-up circuit to a desired level. A code for activating one or more transistor in the pull-up circuit can be determined against the first reference voltage. For a pull-down circuit, a second reference voltage can be set a resistance level of the pull-down circuit to a desired level. The resistance level of the pull-down circuit can be set to equal to the resistance level of the pull-up circuit. A second code can be set for activating one or more transistor in the pull-down circuit. The first and second reference voltages can be represented by index values. The code and second code can be stored for use by the pull-up circuit and pull-down circuit. Re-calibration of the pull-up and pull-down circuits can be performed to determine codes using the first and second reference voltages.

Techniques to calibrate an impedance level

An input/output (I/O) circuit provides a direct current (DC) bias between I/O stages to control duty cycle of the I/O. The I/O circuit can include one or more predriver stages and one or more output stages. The predriver stages can collectively be referred to as a predriver stage, and the output stages can collectively be referred to an output stage. The output stage for a transmitter drives the signal line. The output stage for an input buffer provides a receive signal for processing by the receiver. The I/O circuit includes a control circuit to control the DC bias between the stages to provide trim adjustment of a duty cycle for the output stage.

Duty cycle control circuitry for input/output (I/O) margin control

Write training in memory devices

Methods of operating a memory include determining a target voltage level for an access line voltage, determining a target overdrive voltage level for gating the access line voltage to an access line coupled to a plurality of memory cells, generating a voltage level for the access line voltage in response to its target voltage level and generating a voltage level for gating the access line voltage to the access line in response to the target overdrive voltage level, and applying the access line voltage to the access line while applying the voltage level for gating the access line voltage to a control gate of a string driver connected to the access line.

Methods for programming memory including an overdrive voltage for gating an access line voltage

Growing community of inventors

Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Qiang Tang