A new on-chip converter for submicrometer high-density DRAMs

Abstract

The converter described is a feedback-type voltage regulator which supplies a reduced voltage to an entire RAM circuit. A novel timing activation method was introduced to save power. The converter has been implemented on an experimental 4-Mb dynamic RAM. It was found that an even faster access time and higher reliability compared to a conventional design could be achieved by using an on-chip voltage converter and shorter channel transistors. This voltage converter is suitable for high-density, high-speed, and high-reliability DRAMs with submicrometer transistors.