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. 14, 2000
Filed:
Oct. 28, 1999
Abstract
A nonvolatile ferroelectric memory that reduces the number of cycles of reference cells to extend lifetime of memory. A reference cell of the memory is activated to provide a reference voltage to a sense amplifier only when the sense amplifier needs the reference voltage. The memory comprises a plurality of cells arranged in a matrix form and including memory cells and reference cells, and a plurality of sense amplifiers arranged in a row of the matrix, in which each sense amplifier compares voltages induced from a reference cell and a selected memory cell to read information stored in the selected memory cell, and in which each reference cell is activated only when both a selection signal from a column address and a word line connected to said reference cell are enabled.