Title :
Two-phase boosted voltage generator for low-voltage DRAMs
Author :
Cho, Seong-Ik ; Lee, Jung-Hwan ; Park, Hong-June ; Lim, Gyu-Ho ; Kim, Young-Hee
Author_Institution :
Hynix Semicond. Inc., Icheon, South Korea
Abstract :
A two-phase boosted voltage (VPP) generator circuit was proposed for use in gigabit DRAMs. It reduced the maximum gate-oxide voltage of pass transistor and the lower limit of supply voltage to VPP and VTN, respectively, while those for the conventional charge-pump circuit are VPP+VDD and 1.5 VTN respectively. Also, the pumping current was increased in the new circuit. The newly proposed two-phase VPP charge-pump circuit worked successfully at VDD down to 0.8 V by eliminating the threshold voltage loss of the control pulse generator and was tested successfully in a 0.16-μm test chip using triple-well CMOS technology.
Keywords :
CMOS memory circuits; DRAM chips; bootstrap circuits; circuit simulation; pulse generators; 0.16 micron; 0.8 V; bootstrapping; control pulse generator; gigabit DRAMs; low-voltage DRAMs; pass transistor maximum gate-oxide voltage; pumping current; supply voltage lower limit; threshold voltage loss elimination; triple-well CMOS technology; two-phase VPP charge-pump circuit; two-phase boosted voltage generator; CMOS technology; Charge pumps; Circuit testing; Low voltage; MOSFETs; Pulse generation; Random access memory; Ring oscillators; Threshold voltage; Voltage control;
Journal_Title :
Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JSSC.2003.817592
