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:
May. 31, 2011
Filed:
Oct. 31, 2007
Yolin Lih, San Jose, CA (US);
Dennis Wendell, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Jun Liu, Cupertino, CA (US);
Daniel Fung, Fremont, CA (US);
Ajay Bhatia, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Shyam Balasubramanian, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Yolin Lih, San Jose, CA (US);
Dennis Wendell, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Jun Liu, Cupertino, CA (US);
Daniel Fung, Fremont, CA (US);
Ajay Bhatia, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Shyam Balasubramanian, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Oracle America, Inc., Redwood City, CA (US);
Abstract
A memory device having a split power switch is provided to improve the writeability of static random access memory (SRAM) cells without adversely compromising their stability. For example, various split power switch circuits are used to permit the voltage or current of a power supply line connected with one side of an SRAM cell to drop during write operations. This drop weakens one side of the SRAM cell and reduces the drive-fight between transistors of the SRAM cell and external write circuitry. As a result, the minimum voltage for writing new logic states into the SRAM cell is reduced to permit overall lower operating voltages for the SRAM cell and related circuitry. By continuing to maintain a second side of the SRAM cell at the reference voltage or current, the SRAM cell can successfully switch to a newly written logic state.