Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
UTILIZING CAPACITORS INTEGRATED WITH MEMORY DEVICES FOR CHARGE DETECTION TO DETERMINE DRAM REFRESH

Abstract:

A modified 1C1T cell detects when the charge in the memory cell drops below a predetermined voltage due to leakage and asserts a refresh signal indicating that refresh needs to be performed on those memory cells associated with the modified 1C1T memory cell. The associated memory cells may be a row, a bank, or other groupings of memory cells. Because temperature affects leakage current, the modified memory cell automatically adjusts for temperature.