Semiconductor memory device and memory system including same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9607678-B2
Application number	US-201514959003-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 4, 2015
Priority date	Dec 5, 2014
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

A method of operating a semiconductor memory device is provided as follows. The semiconductor memory device receive a bank address for a first bank including a first word line, a second word line and a third word line. The semiconductor memory device receive a first row address to activate the first world line for a read operation or a write operation. The semiconductor memory device generates a second row address to refresh a plurality of memory cells associated with the second word line.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a semiconductor memory device comprising: receiving a bank address for a first bank including a first word line, a second word line and a third word line;
receiving a first row address to activate the first word line for a read operation or a write operation;
generating a second row address to refresh a plurality of memory cells associated with the second word line;
generating a refresh clock signal of which period is a refresh time interval, decreasing a counter value upon elapse of each period of the refresh clock signal; and
increasing the counter value in response to completion of the refreshing,
wherein the semiconductor memory device generates the second row address.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
if the first bank is not activated during a refresh window, generating a per-bank self-refresh signal.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
activating the first word line using the first row address; and
refreshing the plurality of memory cells associated with the second word line using the second row address.

4. The method of claim 3 ,
wherein the activating and the refreshing are performed at substantially the same time.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a per-bank self-refresh signal associated with the first bank if the counter value reaches a predetermined minimum value during a refresh window; and
performing the per-bank self-refresh signal on the first bank.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a maximum refresh signal if the counter value reaches a predetermined maximum value during a refresh window, wherein the generating of the second row address is prohibited in response to the maximum refresh signal.

7. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
decoding the second row address; and
generating a refresh done signal if the refreshing of the plurality of memory cells is completed.

8. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
outputting an error signal to a memory controller if a second activation command is issued to the bank during the performing of the per-bank self-refresh signal on the bank; and
performing the second active command after completion of the performing the per-bank self-refresh signal.

9. A semiconductor memory device comprising:
a command decoder generating an activation command;
a bank activation logic receiving a bank address and the activation command and generating a bank activation signal; and
a plurality of memory bank units including a first bank unit,
wherein if the bank address indicates to the first bank unit, the first bank unit performs the activation command and an active refresh operation and generates a first refresh done signal, and if the bank address does not indicate to the first bank unit for a predetermined time, the first bank unit performs a per-bank self-refresh operation,
wherein performing of the activation command and performing of the active refresh operation are initiated by the bank activation signal,
wherein if the bank activation logic detects an activation conflict from the first bank unit, the bank activation logic further generates an activation impossibility signal and the generating of the bank activation signal for the first bank unit is performed after completion of a first per-bank self-refresh operation which is being performed on the first bank unit, and
wherein the activation conflict occurs if the activation command is issued to the first bank unit which is performing the first per-bank self-refresh operation.

10. The semiconductor memory device of claim 9 ,
wherein the performing of the activation command and the performing of the active refresh operation start at substantially the same, and wherein after the performing of the active refresh operation is completed, the first refresh done signal is generated.

11. The semiconductor memory device of claim 9 , further comprising:
an error information generator receiving the activation impossibility signal and providing error information to a memory controller.

12. The semiconductor memory device of claim 9 ,
wherein the first bank unit comprises: a plurality of memory blocks, wherein the memory blocks are arranged in an open bitline architecture having a bitline sense amplifier shared by two adjacent blocks; a refresh row address generator generating a refresh activation address; a row decoder receiving a normal activation address and the refresh activation address; and wherein if the row decoder decodes the refresh activation address, the row decoder generates the first refresh done signal, and wherein if the normal activation address is associated with a first word line within a first block and if the refresh activation address is associated with a second word line within a second block which is spaced apart at least one block from the first block, the row decoder decodes the refresh activation address.

13. The semiconductor memory device of claim 12 ,
wherein if the second block is adjacent to the first block, the row decoder does not decode the refresh activation address.

14. The semiconductor memory device of claim 12 ,
wherein the first bank unit further comprises: a first address driver receiving a row address and providing the normal activation address to the row decoder; a bank control logic receiving a per-bank self-refresh signal and the bank activation signal and generating a bank control signal; and an activation controller receiving the bank control signal and generating a first activation signal and a second activation signal, wherein the first activation signal is provided to the first address driver, wherein the second activation signal is provided to the refresh row address generator, and wherein a logic level of the first activation signal and a logic level of the second activation signal are determined according to the bank control signal.

15. A semiconductor memory system comprising:
a memory controller issuing a first activation command and a first row address;
a semiconductor memory receiving the first activation command and the first row address, generating a second row address, and activating a first word line selected by the first row address and refreshing a plurality of memory cells associated with the second row address,
wherein the refreshing and the activating are initiated by the first activation command,
wherein the semiconductor memory includes a plurality of bank units,
wherein if a bank unit is not refreshed for a refresh window, the bank unit performs a per-bank self-refresh operation in response to a per-bank self-refresh signal generated from the bank unit, and
wherein if the first active command is issued to the bank unit which is performing the per-bank self-refresh operation, the semiconductor memory sends error information to the memory controller, without performing the first active command.

16. The semiconductor memory system of claim 15 ,
wherein the activating and the refreshing start at substantially the same time.

17. The semiconductor memory system of claim 15 ,
wherein the per-bank self-refresh operation is performed on remaining row addresses of the bank unit other than the second row address.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Oh Tae Young
• Doo Su Yeon
• Oh Seung Hoon
• Lee Jong Ho
• Park Kwang Il

Classifications

• G11C11/40618

  Refresh operations over multiple banks or interleaving · CPC title

• G11C11/40615 Primary

  Internal triggering or timing of refresh, e.g. hidden refresh, self refresh, pseudo-SRAMs · CPC title

• G11C11/4087

  Address decoders, e.g. bit - or word line decoders; Multiple line decoders · CPC title

• G11C2029/5606

  Error catch memory · CPC title

• G11C11/40603

  Arbitration, priority and concurrent access to memory cells for read/write or refresh operations · CPC title