SEMICONDUCTOR MEMORY DEVICE

• US 20070268750A1
• Filed: 05/17/2007
• Published: 11/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Toda, Haruki, Edahiro, Toshiaki, SUZUKI, Toshihiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,495,965 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 365/185.230
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/0483 comprising cells having several storage transistors connected in series
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/08 Address circuits; Decoders; Word-line control circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/24 Bit-line control circuits

Abstract

A voltage switching circuit used in a row decoder includes: PMOS transistor P2 and high-voltage NMOS transistor D3 connected in series between VRDEC and TG; PMOS transistor P1 and high-voltage NMOS transistor D2 connected in series between VRDEC and NA; NMOS transistor N2 and high-voltage NMOS transistor D6 connected in series between TG and Vss to be driven by decode output Ab; and NMOS transistor N1 and high-voltage NMOS transistor D5 connected in series between NA and Vss to be driven by decode output Aa. Gates and drains of P1 and P2 are cross-coupled. Gates of D3 and D2 are coupled to TG and NA, respectively.

Claims

1. A semiconductor memory device comprising:

first and second cell arrays having bit lines, word lines and electrically rewritable and non-volatile memory cells connected to the bit lines and word lines, main memory cells thereof being used as information cells for storing data while the others are used as reference cells;

a sense amplifier disposed to be selectively coupled to a pair of bit lines selected from the first and second cell arrays, an information cell and a reference cell being coupled to the pair of bit lines, respectively; and

a row decoder configured to selectively drive word lines in the first and second cell arrays with a voltage switching circuit for transferring a high voltage supplied to a first node to a second node in accordance with input address, wherein

the voltage switching circuit comprises;

a first E-type PMOS transistor disposed between the first and second nodes, the drain and gate of which are coupled to the second node and a third nodes, respectively;

a first D-type NMOS transistor disposed between the first node and the source of the first E-type PMOS transistor, the gate of which is coupled to the second node, the first D-type NMOS transistor having a breakdown voltage higher than that of the first E-type PMOS transistor;

a second E-type PMOS transistor disposed between the first and the third node, the drain and gate of which are coupled to the third node and the second node, respectively;

a second D-type NMOS transistor disposed between the first node and the source of the second E-type PMOS transistor, the gate of which is coupled to the third node, the second D-type NMOS transistor having a breakdown voltage higher than that of the second E-type PMOS transistor;

a first E-type NMOS transistor disposed between the second node and the ground potential node to be on-driven at a non-selected time and off-driven at a selected time;

a third D-type NMOS transistor disposed between the second node and the drain of the first E-type NMOS transistor to be on/off-driven simultaneously with the first E-type NMOS transistor, the third D-type NMOS transistor having a breakdown voltage higher than that of the first E-type NMOS transistor;

a second E-type NMOS transistor disposed between the third node and the ground potential node to be off-driven at the non-selected time and on-driven at the selected time; and

a fourth D-type NMOS transistor disposed between the third node and the drain of the second E-type NMOS transistor to be on/off-driven simultaneously with the second E-type NMOS transistor, the fourth-D-type NMOS transistor having a breakdown voltage higher than that of the second E-type NMOS transistor.

2. The semiconductor memory device according to claim 1, wherein the voltage switching circuit further comprises:

a fifth D-type NMOS transistor connected in parallel with the first D-type NMOS transistor to be on-driven at the selected time, the fifth D-type NMOS transistor having a breakdown voltage higher than the first E-type PMOS transistor; and

a sixth D-type NMOS transistor connected in parallel with the second D-type NMOS transistor to be on-driven at the non-selected time, the sixth D-type NMOS transistor having a breakdown voltage higher than the second E-type PMOS transistor.

3. The semiconductor memory device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an equalize circuit disposed between the differential input nodes of the sense amplifier to equalize a selected pair of bit lines to be coupled to the sense amplifier; and

precharge circuits disposed at the ends of the first and second cell arrays to be opposed to the sense amplifier, respectively, for precharging the selected pair of bit lines.

4. The semiconductor memory device according to claim 3, wherein

at a bit line precharge time with the precharge circuits, not only a selected bit line but also two non-selected bit lines disposed adjacent to the selected bit line are precharged simultaneously.

5. The semiconductor memory device according to claim 1, wherein

a write mode is so defined as to write data in multiple information cells coupled to even numbered bit lines or odd numbered bit lines simultaneously, and wherein

adjacent two bit lines are simultaneously selected as even numbered bit lines or odd numbered bit lines in the write mode.

6. The semiconductor memory device according to claim 1, wherein

multiple memory cells are connected in series to constitute a NAND string in the first and second cell arrays.

7. A semiconductor memory device comprising:

first and second cell arrays having bit lines, word lines and electrically rewritable and non-volatile memory cells connected to the bit lines and word lines, main memory cells thereof being used as information cells for storing data while the others are used as reference cells;

a sense amplifier disposed to be selectively coupled to a pair of bit lines selected from the first and second cell arrays, an information cell and a reference cell being coupled to the pair of bit lines, respectively; and

a row decoder configured to selectively drive word lines in the first and second cell arrays with a voltage switching circuit for transferring a high voltage supplied to a first node to a second node in accordance with input address, wherein

the voltage switching circuit comprises;

a first E-type PMOS transistor disposed between the first and second nodes to be on-driven at a selected time, the drain of which is coupled to the second node;

a first D-type NMOS transistor disposed between the first node and the source of the first E-type PMOS transistor, the gate of which is coupled to a third node, the first D-type NMOS transistor having a breakdown voltage higher than that of the first E-type PMOS transistor;

a second E-type PMOS transistor disposed between the first and the third node to be on-driven at the selected time;

a second D-type NMOS transistor disposed between the first node and the source of the second E-type PMOS transistor, the gate of which is coupled to the third node, the second D-type NMOS transistor having a breakdown voltage higher than that of the second E-type PMOS transistor;

first and second E-type NMOS transistors serially connected between the third node and the ground potential node with an interconnection node coupled to the second node, the common gate of which is off-driven at the selected time; and

a third D-type NMOS transistor connected in parallel with the second D-type NMOS transistor to be on-driven at the selected time, the third D-type NMOS transistor having a breakdown voltage higher than that of the second E-type NMOS transistor.

8. The semiconductor memory device according to claim 7, further comprising:

an equalize circuit disposed between the differential input nodes of the sense amplifier to equalize a selected pair of bit lines to be coupled to the sense amplifier; and

precharge circuits disposed at the ends of the first and second cell arrays to be opposed to the sense amplifier, respectively, for precharging the selected pair of bit lines.

9. The semiconductor memory device according to claim 8, wherein

at a bit line precharge time with the precharge circuits, not only a selected bit line but also two non-selected bit lines disposed adjacent to the selected bit line are precharged simultaneously.

10. The semiconductor memory device according to claim 7, wherein

a write mode is so defined as to write data in multiple information cells coupled to even numbered bit lines or odd numbered bit lines simultaneously, and wherein

adjacent two bit lines are simultaneously selected as even numbered bit lines or odd numbered bit lines in the write mode.

11. The semiconductor memory device according to claim 7, wherein

multiple memory cells are connected in series to constitute a NAND string in the first and second cell arrays.

12. A semiconductor memory device comprising:

first and second cell arrays having bit lines, word lines and electrically rewritable and non-volatile memory cells connected to the bit lines and word lines, main memory cells thereof being used as information cells for storing data while the others are used as reference cells;

a sense amplifier disposed to be selectively coupled to a pair of bit lines selected from the first and second cell arrays, an information cell and a reference cell being coupled to the pair of bit lines, respectively;

an equalize circuit disposed between the differential input nodes of the sense amplifier to equalize a selected pair of bit lines to be coupled to the sense amplifier; and

precharge circuits disposed at the ends of the first and second cell arrays to be opposed to the sense amplifier, respectively, for precharging the selected pair of bit lines.

13. The semiconductor memory device according to claim 12, wherein

at a bit line precharge time with the precharge circuits, not only a selected bit line but also two non-selected bit lines disposed adjacent to the selected bit line are precharged simultaneously.

14. The semiconductor memory device according to claim 12, wherein

a write mode is so defined as to write data in multiple information cells coupled to even numbered bit lines or odd numbered bit lines simultaneously, and wherein

adjacent two bit lines are simultaneously selected as even numbered bit lines or odd numbered bit lines in the write mode.

15. The semiconductor memory device according to claim 12, wherein

multiple memory cells are connected in series to constitute a NAND string in the first and second cell arrays.

16. A semiconductor memory device comprising:

first and second cell arrays having bit lines, word lines and electrically rewritable and non-volatile memory cells connected to the bit lines and word lines, main memory cells thereof being used as information cells for storing data while the others are used as reference cells; and

a read/write circuit with a sense amplifier disposed to be selectively coupled to a pair of bit lines selected from the first and second cell arrays, an information cell and a reference cell being coupled to the pair of bit lines, respectively, wherein

a write mode is so defined as to write data in multiple information cells coupled to even numbered bit lines or odd numbered bit lines simultaneously, and wherein

adjacent two bit lines are simultaneously selected as even numbered bit lines or odd numbered bit lines in the write mode.

17. The semiconductor memory device according to claim 16, wherein

multiple memory cells are connected in series to constitute a NAND string in the first and second cell arrays.