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:
Jun. 29, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 11, 2002
Paul S. Lazar, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Nanoamp Solutions, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A counter is incremented whenever an internal refresh is requested and a prior internal refresh request has not yet been completed. A refresh-request storage element such as a latch circuit, provides an output signal that is set upon receipt of an internal refresh request control signal to initiate an internal refresh cycle. A refresh-request storage element is reset upon initiation of an internal refresh cycle. A refresh miss detector provides an output pulse when the refresh request signal is received concurrent with the refresh request storage element being set. Provision is made to read out the count, and to reset the count. By reading out the count an indication is obtained of how many refresh requests were missed, and by using arbitrary input patterns the robustness of the self-refreshing DRAM is improved.