Sub-word line driver with soft-landing

An apparatus, comprising:

• a plurality of sub-word line drivers, each sub-word line driver configured to receive a main word line signal on a corresponding global word line and configured to drive a respective local word line to at least one of an active state, a soft-landing state, or an off state based on the respective main word line signal and a respective phase signal;
• a plurality of phase drivers, each phase driver of the plurality of phase drivers configured to generate the respective phase signal, each phase driver connected to a predetermined number of sub-word line drivers of the plurality of sub-word line drivers, where each sub-word line driver of the predetermined number of sub-word line drivers connect to a different global word line;
• and
• a processing device operatively coupled to each of the sub-word line drivers and each of the phase drivers, the processing device configured to drive the respective local word line to the soft-landing state prior to entering the off state when transitioning from the active state to the off state so as to provide row hammer stress mitigation between adjacent local word lines corresponding to the plurality of sub-word line drivers,
• wherein each sub-word line driver includes a diode-connected transistor.