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. 07, 2000
Filed:
Sep. 19, 1997
Franz Freimuth, Williston, VT (US);
Siemens Microelectronics, Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
Improved techniques for driving wordlines of a semiconductor memory device are described. Accordingly to the invention, a wordline 402 is driven by a wordline driver 406 at a first end and then provided with a small amount of additional circuitry 442 at the other end of the wordline. When the additional circuitry senses that the wordline is beginning to transition to an active state, the additional circuitry operates to assist or accelerate the transition of the wordline to the active state. Accordingly, the invention operates to rapidly transition wordlines to an active state while using only minimal amounts of die area. The invention is particularly well suited for dynamic random access memories.