US 5,490,111 AGranted

Semiconductor integrated circuit device

AssigneeOki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.

InventorToshikazu Sakata

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Abstract

A semiconductor integrated circuit device includes a sense amplifier for amplifying the data stored in a memory cell, activated in accordance with a binary output enable signal fed to the integrated circuit device, in order to reduce the power consumption thereof. When the output enable signal is at a first level, in which the output of the integrated circuit device becomes in a floating state after a memory cell is selected to be read out, the sense amplifier is disabled to reduce the power consumption. The sense amplifier is disabled in response to a signal from a control circuit, which produces a logical output signal based on output enable signal and a control signal used to activate the sense amplifier only for the read operation. While the sense amplifier is temporarily disabled, the output of the sense amplifier is latched by a latch circuit, which is also controlled by the output enable signal, to guarantee an output enable access time.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A semiconductor integrated circuit device comprising:

a plurality of bit-line pairs;
a plurality of memory cells, each having a pair of first and second transfer gates connected to the respective bit-lines of one of said bit-line pairs;
a plurality of first and second word-lines, disposed so as to intersect said bit-line pairs, a pair of said first and second word-lines connected to the respective first and second transfer gates of each of said memory cells, for controlling the respective transfer gates, thereby to control access to the memory cells by said bit-line pairs;
a cell selection circuit for selecting a memory cell, the selected memory cell to be accessed for reading data therefrom during a read operation of the device, and for writing data to be stored therein during a write operation of the device, by providing a first transfer gate controlling signal on a selected one of said first word-lines, the first signal corresponding to address data fed to the device during the write operation, and providing second transfer gate controlling signals on one pair of said first and second word-lines, the second signals corresponding to address data fed to the device during the read operation;
and
a write data-line for providing data to be stored in said memory cells during the write operation, said write data-line connected to each memory cell through one bit-line of a respective one of said bit-line pairs, said one bit-line connected to the transfer gate controlled by said one of said first word-lines.

3 more elements

A method of performing read operations and write operations in a semiconductor integrated circuit device, the device including a plurality of word-line pairs, each including a first word-line and a second word-line, a plurality of bit-line pairs, each including a first bit-line and a second bit-line, disposed so as to intersect the word-lines, a plurality of memory cells, each including a first transfer gate connected to the first word-line of one word-line pair and to the first bit-line of one bit-line pair and a second transfer gate connected to the second word-line of one word line pair and to the second bit-line Of One bit-line pair, first and second read-data lines, connected to each memory cell through the respective first and second bit-lines of the bit-line pairs, for receiving data read from a selected memory cell during the read operations of the device, and a write data-line, connected to each memory cell through the first bit-lines of the bit-line pairs, for carrying data to be written into the selected memory cell during the write operations of the device, the method comprising the steps of:

a. writing data from the write data-line into one memory cell, including selecting the one memory cell for access through only the first transfer gate, by providing a selection signal on only the first word-line connected to the first transfer gate, during a write operation of the device, and transferring the data from the write data-line into the selected memory cell via the first bit-line and the first transfer gate;
and
b. reading data from the one memory cell, including selecting the one memory cell for access through the first and second transfer gates, by providing the selection signal on both the first word-line connected to the first transfer gate and the second word-line connected to the second transfer gate during a read operation of the device, and reading the data from the selected memory cell onto the read data-lines via the first and second transfer gates and the first and second bit-lines.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.