Etron Technology, Inc.

Yao Yi Liu

Yen-An Chang

Der-Min Yuan

Jen Shou Hsu

The present invention relates to a gate driving circuit, comprising a driver control circuit, a voltage following bias circuit, a pull up circuit and a MOS transistor. The driver control circuit receives an active signal and generates a pull up signal or a pull down signal. In case of the pull up signal, the MOS transistor is turned to the OFF state by the pull up circuit, and there is no current for the output load device. In case of the pull down signal, the MOS transistor is turned to the ON state by the voltage following bias circuit. The driving voltage for the gate of the MOS transistor has a constant voltage drop according to the external supply voltage. Therefore, the gate driving circuit of the present invention provides a constant current for the output load device.

Gate driving circuit

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

Yao Yi Liu