Compact and highly efficient dram cell
AssigneeBroadcom Corporation
InventorSami Issa
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A compact dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cell and highly efficient methods for using the DRAM cell are disclosed. The DRAM cell provides reading, writing, and storage of a data bit on an ASIC chip. The DRAM cell includes a first transistor acting as a pass gate and having a first source node, a first gate node, and a first drain node. The DRAM cell also includes a second transistor acting as a storage device and having a second drain node that is electrically connected to the first drain node to form a storage node. The second transistor also includes a second source node and a second gate node. The second source node is electrically floating, thus increasing the effective storage capacitance of the storage node.
Claims23
A dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cell providing reading, writing, and storage of a data bit, said cell comprising:
- a first transistor having a first source node, a first gate node, and a first drain node;
- and
- a second transistor having a second drain node that is electrically connected to said first drain node, and said second transistor having a second source node and a second gate node.
A method for reducing leakage current when storing a data bit in an embedded DRAM cell, said method comprising:
- writing a data bit to a DRAM cell during a first time segment;
- applying a transistor disabling reference ground potential to a first gate node of a first transistor of said DRAM cell during a second time segment, said second time segment being after said first time segment;
- applying a first reference voltage, with respect to said reference ground potential, to a first source node of said first transistor during said second time segment;
- and
- applying a second reference voltage, with respect to said reference ground potential, to a second gate node of a second transistor during at least a portion of said second time segment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.