Signal line driving circuits with active body pull-up capability for

Abstract

Driving circuits with active body pull-capability for inhibiting boost delay include main, subordinate and boosted signal lines and a first driver circuit electrically coupled to the main signal line, to drive the main signal line at a first potential (e.g., Vcc). A second driver circuit, electrically coupled to the boosted signal line, is also provided to drive the boosted signal line at a second potential (e.g., Vpp) greater than the first potential. A first field effect transistor is provided as a pull-up transistor which has a gate, drain and source electrically coupled to the main signal line, the boosted signal line and the subordinate signal line, respectively. To reduce body-bias effects which might inhibit the speed and pull-up capability of the pull-up transistor, a second field effect transistor is provided to actively pull-up the body (e.g., active region) of the pull-up transistor. This second field effect has a gate, drain and source electrically coupled to the main signal line (or boosted signal line), the boosted signal line and the body of the pull-up transistor, respectively. The second field effect transistor is designed to provide a pull-up function to the body of the pull-up transistor so that the magnitude of the reverse bias between an inversion layer channel (e.g., N-type) and the body region (e.g., P-type) of the pull-up transistor is reduced when the pull-up transistor is turned on to provide a voltage boost to the subordinate signal line. This reduction in the reverse bias results in a reduction of the body-bias effect and the increase in threshold voltage typically associated with the body-bias effect.