Stmicroelectronics International N.v.

Stmicroelectronics S.r.l.

Stmicroelectronics Pvt. Ltd.

Vikas Rana

Marco Pasotti

Fabio De Santis

Marcella Carissimi

Laura Capecchi

Vivek Tyagi

Arpit Vijayvergia

Chantal Auricchio

Shivam Kalla

Roberto Bregoli

Ganesh Raj R

Neha Dalal

Abhishek Mittal

Fabio Enrico Carlo Disegni

Promod Kumar

Cesare Torti

Amit Chhabra

Abhishek Lal

Dario Livornesi

Rohan Sinha

In an embodiment a non-volatile memory cell includes a substrate, a first body in the substrate, a second body in the substrate, a first storage transistor having a first conduction region and a second conduction region in the first body, the first and second conduction regions delimiting a first channel region in the first body, a first control gate region in the second body, an insulating region overlying the substrate, a single floating gate region extending on the substrate and embedded in the insulating region, the single floating gate region having a first portion on the first body and a second portion on the second body, the first portion and second portion being connected and electrically coupled, a first selection via extending through the insulating region and electrically coupling the first conduction region with a first conduction node, a second selection via extending through the insulating region and electrically coupling the second conduction region with a second conduction node and a first control via extending though the insulating region and electrically coupling the first control gate region with a first control node.

Non-volatile memory cell with single poly, floating gate extending over two wells

The present disclosure is directed to an integrated circuit that includes a non-volatile memory (NVM). The integrated circuit includes a bias generator that produces stable wordline and bitline voltages for a reliable read operation of the NVM. This disclosure is directed to low voltage memory operations of memory read, erase verify, and program verify. The present disclosure is directed to non-volatile memory circuits that can also operate at low supply voltages in digital voltage supply range.

Device and method to generate bias voltages in non-volatile memory

An integrated circuit includes a memory array and a memory read circuitry for reading data from the memory array. The memory read circuitry includes a leakage current compensation circuit. The leakage current compensation circuit senses the leakage current in a bitline of the memory array during a read operation and generates a leakage compensation current to offset the leakage current during the read operation.

Circuit and method for on-chip leakage detection and compensation for memories

The present disclosure is directed to arranging user data memory cells and test memory cells in a configurable memory array that can perform both differential and single ended read operations during memory start-up and normal memory use, respectively. Different arrangements of the user data memory cells and the test memory cells in the memory array result in increased effectiveness of memory array, in terms of area optimization, memory read accuracy and encryption for data security.

Memory circuit arrangement for accurate and secure read

An integrated circuit die includes memory sectors, each memory sector including a memory array. The die includes a voltage regulator with a first transistor driven by an output voltage to thereby generate a gate voltage, the output voltage being generated based upon a difference between a constant current and a leakage current. A selection circuit selectively couples the gate voltage to a selected one of the plurality of memory sectors. A leakage detector circuit drives a second transistor with the output voltage to thereby generate a copy voltage based upon a difference between a variable current and a replica of the constant current, increases the variable current in response to the copy voltage being greater than the gate voltage, and asserts a leakage detection signal in response to the copy voltage being less than the gate voltage, the leakage detection signal indicating excess leakage within the memory array.

Circuit and method to detect word-line leakage and process defects in non-volatile memory array

An integrated circuit includes a charge pump. The charge pump includes a plurality of charge pump stages and a plurality of switches. The switches can operated to selectively couple the charge pump stages in various arrangements of series and parallel connections based on a currently selected operational mode of the charge pump. The charge pump assists in performing read and write operations for a memory array of the integrated circuit.

Selectively configurable charge pump

An integrated circuit includes a non-volatile memory, a charge pump that generates high voltages for programming operations of the non-volatile memory array, and a charge pump regulator that controls a slew rate of the charge pump. The charge pump regulator generates a sense current indicative of the slew rate and adjusts a frequency of a clock signal provided to the charge pump based on the sense current.

Circuit and method for constant slew rate in high voltage charge pumps

A voltage supply circuit and a method for controlling a voltage supply circuit are provided. The voltage supply circuit includes a positive charge pump stage that generates a positive voltage and a negative charge pump stage that generates a negative voltage. The voltage supply circuit also includes a control stage that compares a voltage representative of the negative voltage with a reference voltage and causes a slope of the positive voltage to decrease when the voltage representative of the negative voltage exceeds the reference voltage.

Positive and negative charge pump control

A read signal generator generates read signals to control read operations of a memory array. The read signal generator can be selectively controlled to generate an oscillating signal having a period that corresponds to a feature one of the read signals. The oscillating signal is passed to a frequency divider that divides the oscillating signal and provides the divided oscillating signal to an output pad. The frequency of the oscillating signal can be measured at the output pad. The frequency of the oscillating signal, and the duration of the read signal feature can be calculated from the frequency of the oscillating signal. The read signal feature can then be adjusted if needed.

Circuit for generating and trimming phases for memory cell read operations

A charge pump circuit includes a boost capacitor driven by a first clock signal and a bootstrap capacitor driven by a second clock signal. The first and second clock signals have different duty cycles, with the duty cycle of the second clock signal being smaller than the duty cycle of the first clock signal. An input transistor is coupled between an input node and a boost node coupled to the boost capacitor. The control terminal of the input transistor is coupled to the bootstrap capacitor. A bootstrap transistor coupled between the boost node and the control terminal of the input transistor is driven by a logical inverse of the first clock signal.

NMOS-based negative charge pump circuit

According to principles as discussed herein, an EEPROM cell is provided and then, after testing the code, using the exact same architecture, transistors, memory cells, and layout, the EEPROM cell is converted to a read-only memory ('ROM') cell. This conversion is done on the very same integrated circuit die using the same layout, design, and timing with only a single change in an upper level mask in the memory array. In one embodiment, the mask change is the via mask connecting metal 1 to poly. This allows the flexibility to store the programming code as non-volatile memory code, and then after it has been tested, at time selected by the customer, some or all of that code from a code that can be written to a read-only code that is stored in a ROM cell that is composed the same transistors and having the same layout.

Method for converting a floating gate non-volatile memory cell to a read-only memory cell and circuit structure thereof

A system and method for operating a memory cell is provided. A non-volatile memory storage device includes an array of memory cells of differential or single-ended type. In an embodiment, a regulator is coupled to a sense amplifier. The regulator is configured to generate a voltage to gate terminals of one or two transistors of the sense amplifier. In the differential type, the voltage is generated such that the first bias current and the second bias current have a current value equal to the sum of a maximum current flowing in a memory cell being in a RESET state and a fixed current. In the single-ended type, the regulated voltage is generated such that the first bias current and the second bias current have a current value equal to the sum of a fixed current and the reference current generated by the reference current source across temperature.

Regulator of a sense amplifier

A charge pump circuit includes a first charge pump stage circuit coupled in series with a second charge pump stage circuit. A discharge circuit operates to discharge the charge pump circuit. The discharge circuit includes: a first switched circuit coupled to a first output of the first charge pump stage circuit and configured, when actuated, to discharge the first output; and a second switched circuit coupled to a second output of the second charge pump stage circuit and configured, when actuated, to discharge the second output. A discharge control circuit actuates the first switched discharge circuit to discharge the first output and then, after the first output is fully discharged, actuates the second switched discharge circuit to discharge the second output.

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Noida, India

Vikas Rana