Apparatuses including temperature-based threshold voltage compensated sense amplifiers and methods for compensating same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11335385-B2
Application number	US-202017028795-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 22, 2020
Priority date	May 24, 2019
Publication date	May 17, 2022
Grant date	May 17, 2022

Abstract

Systems, methods, and apparatuses for temperature-compensated operation of electronic devices are described. For example, an apparatus for performing voltage compensation on a sense amplifier based on temperature may include a sense amplifier control circuit coupled to the sense amplifier to provide a compensation pulse to the sense amplifier, wherein the sense amplifier operates in a voltage compensation phase during the compensation pulse. The apparatus may determine the compensation pulse responsive to a voltage compensation duration signal that is based on the operating temperature of the apparatus. The voltage compensation occurs when there is no activate command immediately before or immediately after so that compensation duration change do not happen during an activate command from the command decoder.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a sense amplifier control circuit coupled to at least one sense amplifier and configured to provide a bit line compensation signal to cause the sense amplifier to perform threshold voltage compensation for a duration of time before sense and amplify operations, wherein the duration of time is based on an operating temperature of the apparatus.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sense amplifier control circuit includes a threshold voltage compensation duration circuit configured to receive the bit line compensation signal at an active logic level and deactivate the bit line compensation signal based on a delay signal.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the threshold voltage compensation duration circuit comprises a latch circuit.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising a first switching circuit coupled to the threshold voltage compensation duration circuit and configured to provide the delay signal to the threshold voltage compensation duration circuit from one of a plurality of delay signals responsive to a threshold voltage compensation duration signal.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 further comprising a second switching circuit coupled to the first switch circuit to select one of a plurality of temperature selectable compensation codes responsive to one or more temperature compare bits indicating the operating temperature.

6. An apparatus, comprising:
a sense amplifier control circuit coupled to at least one sense amplifier and configured to provide a bit line compensation signal to cause the sense amplifier to perform a voltage compensation for a duration of time,
wherein the duration of time is based on an operating temperature of the apparatus, and wherein the duration of time decreases as the operating temperature increases.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the sense amplifier performs the voltage compensation for a first duration of time based on a first operating temperature of the apparatus in a first temperature range and performs the voltage compensation for a second duration of time based on a second operating temperature of the apparatus in a second temperature range, wherein the second duration of time is lower than the first duration of time when the second temperature range is higher than the first temperature range.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the first temperature range and the second temperature range are indicated by one or more temperature compare bits.

9. An apparatus, comprising:
a plurality of memory banks each comprising a memory cell array and a sense amplifier; a sense amplifier control circuit coupled to the sense amplifier of at least one of the plurality of memory banks and configured to cause the sense amplifier to perform a threshold voltage compensation operation for a duration of time during a threshold voltage compensation phase, wherein the duration of time is based on an operating temperature.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising a voltage compensation control circuit coupled to the sense amplifier control circuit and configured to provide a voltage compensation duration signal to the sense amplifier control circuit, wherein the voltage compensation duration signal is based on the operating temperature.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the voltage compensation control circuit comprises a first switching circuit coupled to the sense amplifier control circuit and configured to provide the voltage compensation duration signal to the sense amplifier control circuit from a plurality of temperature selectable compensation codes responsive to temperature compare bits indicating the operating temperature.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the voltage compensation control circuit further comprises a switch coupled to the first switching circuit and configured to correspond multiple compensation codes to respective temperature selectable compensation codes of the plurality of temperature selectable compensation codes.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the sense amplifier control circuit comprises:
a second switching circuit coupled to multiple delay signal lines and configured to select at least one of the multiple delay signal lines responsive to the voltage compensation duration signal; and
a threshold voltage compensation duration circuit coupled to the second switching circuit and configured to deactivate an active bit line compensation signal based on the selected delay signal line, wherein the bit line compensation signal is provided to the sense amplifier.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the sense amplifier control circuit further comprising multiple delay circuits each coupled to a respective signal line of the multiple delay signal lines, wherein the multiple delay circuits are activated by an activate command from a command decoder.

15. A method, comprising:
determining an operating temperature of a memory; and
responsive to an activate command, performing a threshold voltage compensation operation for a duration of time to a sense amplifier of the memory during a threshold voltage compensation phase, wherein the duration of time is based on the operating temperature.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising receiving an active bit line compensation signal and deactivating the bit line compensation signal based on a delay signal, wherein the bit line compensation signal is provided to the sense amplifier of the memory.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising providing the delay signal from one of a plurality of delay signals responsive to a threshold voltage compensation duration signal.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising providing the threshold voltage compensation duration signal based on a selected one of a plurality of temperature selectable compensation codes responsive to one or more temperature compare bits indicating the operating temperature.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising latching the selected one of the plurality of temperature selectable compensation codes responsive to an inactive activate command.

20. A method, comprising:
determining an operating temperature of a memory; and
responsive to an activate command, performing a threshold voltage compensation operation for a duration of time to a sense amplifier of the memory, wherein the duration of time is based on the operating temperature, wherein the duration of time decreases as the operating temperature increases.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising decreasing the duration of time in a step-wise manner as the operating temperature increases.

Assignees

• Micron Technology Inc

Inventors

• Lam Boon Hor
• Major Karl L
• Hawkins Jonathan
• Ahmad Galaly

Classifications

• G11C7/065

  Differential amplifiers of latching type · CPC title

• G11C11/4094

  Bit-line management or control circuits · CPC title

• G11C7/12

  Bit line control circuits, e.g. drivers, boosters, pull-up circuits, pull-down circuits, precharging circuits, equalising circuits, for bit lines · CPC title

• G11C7/22

  Read-write [R-W] timing or clocking circuits; Read-write [R-W] control signal generators or management · CPC title

• G11C11/4091

  Sense or sense/refresh amplifiers, or associated sense circuitry, e.g. for coupled bit-line precharging, equalising or isolating · CPC title