US 12,080,378 B2 · Circuits and methods of detecting at least partial breakdown of canary circuits

Abstract

According to one implementation of the present disclosure, a circuit comprises: a memory array comprising one or more groupings of bitcells, one or more bitlines, and one or more wordlines; and one or more canary circuits coupled to the memory array, wherein each of the canary circuits is configured to predict at least partial breakdown of a corresponding grouping of bitcells in the memory array. According to one implementation of the present disclosure, a method includes: providing an excitation stress on one or more canary circuits corresponding to a grouping of bitcells in a memory array; detecting at least a partial breakdown of the one or more canary circuits; and generating a flag.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A circuit comprising:

a memory array comprising one or more groupings of bitcells, one or more bitlines, and one or more wordlines;
and
one or more canary circuits coupled to the memory array, wherein each of the canary circuits is configured to predict at least partial breakdown of a corresponding grouping of bitcells in the memory array, and
wherein each of the one or more canary circuits are activated by a substantially similar wordline voltage, wherein the wordline voltage is a negative voltage, wherein an absolute value of the negative voltage is less than a voltage threshold, and wherein the voltage threshold corresponds to a rate of voltage discharge of a bitline to allow a time-to-digital converter (TDC) or counter to detect a breakdown of at least one of the one or more canary circuits.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application

17/709,076Filed 30 Mar 2022

Published

US 2023/0317126 A15 Oct 2023

Granted

3 Sep 2024

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification12 codes

G11C 7/12
Arrangements for writing information into, or reading information out from, a digital store: bit line control circuits, e.g. drivers, boosters,…
G11C 11/417
Auxiliary circuits, e.g. for addressing, decoding, driving, writing, sensing, timing or power reduction: for memory cells of the field-effect type
G11C 5/12
Details of stores covered by group G11C11/00: apparatus or processes for interconnecting storage elements, e.g. for threading magnetic cores
G11C 7/16
Arrangements for writing information into, or reading information out from, a digital store: storage of analogue signals in digital stores using…

Circuits and methods of detecting at least partial breakdown of canary circuits

Life of this patent

Circuits and methods of detecting at least partial breakdown of canary circuits

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19