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:
Nov. 30, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 13, 1998
David A Kamp, Monument, CO (US);
Celis Semiconductor Corporation, Colorado Springs, CO (US);
Abstract
A ferroelectric integrated circuit memory includes a memory cell having a ferroelectric capacitor, one electrode of which is connected to a bit line through a transistor and the other electrode of which is connected to a plate line. The plate line is floating at one-half Vcc when the bit line is lowered to zero volts to develop a read voltage on the plate line. A unity gain amplifierthen drives a complementary plate line to the same voltage as the plate line, then the plate line and complementary plate line are connected via a transistor, and the bit line is raised to Vcc to develop a reference voltage. This operation subtracts the read voltage from the reference voltage to develop a net voltage on the complementary plate line. The voltage on the complementary plate line is applied to the output line, compared via a sense amplifier to a one-half Vcc voltage on the input line, and the sense amp then drives the input and output lines to zero and Vcc, depending on whether the developed voltage was greater or less than one-half Vcc.