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.

Date of Patent:
Feb. 23, 2016

Filed:

Oct. 06, 2014
Applicant:

Globalfoundries Inc., Grand Cayman, KY;

Inventors:

Chung H. Lam, Peekskill, NY (US);

Jing Li, Yorktown Heights, NY (US);

Assignee:

GLOBALFOUNDRIES INC., Grand Cayman, KY;

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 11/00 (2006.01); G11C 13/00 (2006.01); G11C 11/56 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 13/0069 (2013.01); G11C 11/00 (2013.01); G11C 11/5628 (2013.01); G11C 11/5678 (2013.01); G11C 13/0004 (2013.01); G11C 13/004 (2013.01); G11C 13/0061 (2013.01); G11C 13/0064 (2013.01); G11C 2013/0057 (2013.01); G11C 2013/0076 (2013.01); G11C 2013/0092 (2013.01);
Abstract

An RC-based sensing method and computer program product to effectively sense the cell resistance of a programmed Phase Change Material (PCM) memory cell. The sensing method ensures the same physical configuration of each cell (after programming): same amorphous volume, same trap density/distribution, etc. The sensing method is based on a metric: the RC based sense amplifier implements two trigger points. The measured time interval between these two points is used as the metric to determine whether the programmed cell state, e.g., resistance, is programmed into desired value. The RC-based sensing method is embedded into an iterative PCM cell programming technique to ensure a tight distribution of resistance at each level after programming; and ensure the probability of level aliasing is very small, leading to less problematic drift.


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