The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 17, 1998
Filed:
Jun. 25, 1996
Jian-Yau Yih, Chung Li City, TW;
Yung-Yuan Ho, Chutung, TW;
Nang-Ping Tu, Hsinchu, TW;
Jung-Dar Ho, Chutung, TW;
Chien-Cheng Tu, Hsinchn, TW;
Shaw-Jia Hor, Chung Li City, TW;
Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu, TW;
Abstract
The continuing need for faster and denser SRAM memories places a constant increased demand on the power consumption of the memory devices. Much of the power consumption occurs during the pre-charge phase where it is common practice to bring up all pre-charge circuits at once and hold them active until the memory operations are complete. This invention describes a design where each pre-charge circuit connected to a group of memory cells through bit lines is activated at a separate time from the other pre-charge circuits. Thus each pre-charge circuit is active only during the time that useful work is being done with that portion of the memory. This reduces power consumption by not powering on circuits and precharging bit lines before they are actually needed.