Adjustable drive strength apparatus, systems, and methods

• US 7,558,130 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2007
• Issued: 07/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Grunzke, Terry M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tan; Vibol
• Application Number:
  US11/757,834
• Publication Number:
  US 20080297199A1
• Time in Patent Office: 764 Days
• Field of Search: 365/191, 365/200, 365/230.03, 326/30, 326/86, 327/108
• US Class Current: 365/191
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/02 Detection or location of defective auxiliary circuits, e.g. defective refresh counters
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/022 in I/O circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/028 with adaption or trimming of parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/50008 of impedance
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 7/1045 Read-write mode select circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 7/1051 Data output circuits, e.g. read-out amplifiers, data output buffers, data output registers, data output level conversion circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 7/1057 Data output buffers, e.g. comprising level conversion circuits, circuits for adapting load

Abstract

Apparatus, methods, and systems are disclosed, such as those involving a multi-die device having a common bus to indicate a state of each of a die of a multi-die device and that provides the state of all of the dice at a common output. Such a multi-die device can comprise two or more dice in a multi-die package, wherein each of said dice has a first drive parameter when indicating a first state and a second drive parameter when indicating a second state. When the first drive parameter of the two or more dice is at a value such that when one or more of said two or more dice is in the first state, said common output can indicate that all of the dice in the multi-die device are in the first state.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of dice; and

a common output coupled to at least two of the dice included in the plurality of dice, wherein at least one of the dice coupled to the common output has a first drive parameter value in a first state and a second drive parameter value in a second state, and wherein the plurality of dice are configured to receive a status request from a management component and to provide a first status corresponding to the first state on the common output in response to the status request if at least one of the dice coupled to the common output has the first status, and the plurality of dice are configured to provide a second status corresponding to the second state on the common output in response to the status request if none of the dice coupled to the common output have the first status.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the dice comprises:

an output drive comprising a plurality of pull-up transistors arranged in parallel between a supply voltage node and an output node.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the dice comprises:

an output drive comprising a plurality of pull-down transistors arranged in parallel between a ground node and an output node.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein said output drive comprises:

a plurality of pull-down transistors arranged in parallel between a ground node and the output node, wherein the output drive can be used to indicate one of the first and the second state.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a controller configured to set the first and the second drive parameter values.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first state is active, and the second state is inactive.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first state comprises a logical opposite of the second state.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one the first and second drive parameters comprises one of an output impedance and a drive current.

9. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein said first drive parameter value is set by enabling at least one pull-down transistor.

10. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein said second drive parameter value is set by disabling at least one pull-up transistor.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein said second drive parameter value is set by disabling at least one pull-up transistor.

12. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein said first drive parameter value is set by enabling at least one pull-up transistor.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said second drive parameter value is set by disabling at least one pull-down transistor.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one said first and second drive parameters comprises drive strength.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the status request includes a request whether at least one of the dice has the first status or the second status, the first and second status include opposite status between an active state status of at least one of the dice and an inactive state status of at least one of the dice.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the plurality of dice have normal drive parameters when a status request is not sent.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of dice;

a common output coupled to at least two of the dice included in the plurality of dice, wherein at least one of the dice coupled to the common output has a first drive parameter value in a first state and a second drive parameter value in a second state, and wherein the common output can be used to indicate that all of the dice coupled to the common output are in the first state if at least one of the dice coupled to the common output are in the first state; and

a controller configured to enable at least one pull-up transistor to set the first drive parameter value and to disable at least one pull-down transistor to set said second drive parameter value, wherein the first drive parameter value comprises an impedance of about 5 ohms.

18. A method comprising:

receiving from a management component a status request that requests whether a die in a multi-die package is in a first state or a second state, the first and second states corresponding to opposite states between an active state of the die and an inactive state of said die;

driving a common output with an output drive of said die in the multi-die package in response to the status request to obtain a first drive parameter value when said die is in the first state; and

adjusting an output drive of said die in the multi-die package to obtain a second drive parameter value to drive said common output when said die is in the second state, wherein said common output is driven in response to the status request to indicate the first state whenever at least one die in the multi-die package is in the first state, and wherein said common output is driven in response to the status request to indicate the second state whenever no dice in the multi-die package are in the first state.

19. The method of claim 18, comprising:

enabling pull-down transistors for one or more dice in the multi-die package to obtain said first drive parameter value.

20. The method of claim 18, comprising:

disabling pull-up transistors for one or more dice in the multi-die package to obtain the second drive parameter value.

21. The method of claim 19, comprising:

disabling pull-up transistors for one or more dice in the multi-die package to obtain the second drive parameter value when dice are in the second state.

22. The method of claim 21, comprising:

determining that a command received by the multi-die package may result in bus contention.

23. The method of claim 22, comprising:

determining the first state responsive to receiving the command.

24. The method of claim 23, comprising:

determining said first drive parameter value and said second drive parameter value according to the first state.

25. The method of claim 22, comprising:

sending first instructions from a controller to set said first drive parameter value responsive to receiving said command.

26. The method of claim 22, comprising:

enabling pull-down transistors for one or more dice in the multi-die package to obtain said first drive parameter value responsive to receiving said command.

27. The method of claim 25, comprising:

sending second instructions from the controller to set said second drive parameter value responsive to receiving said command.

28. A method comprising:

receiving from a management component a status request that requests whether a die in a multi-die package is in a first state or a second state, the first and second states corresponding to opposite states between an active state of the die and an inactive state of said die;

enabling at least one pull-up transistor associated with said die in the multi-die package having a common output in response to a status request to obtain a first drive parameter value when said die is in a first state; and

enabling at least one pull-down transistor associated with said die in the multi-die package in response to the status request to obtain a second drive parameter value when said die is in a second state, wherein said common output is driven in response to the status request to indicate the first state whenever at least one die in the multi-die package is in the first state, and wherein said common output is driven in response to the status request to indicate the second state whenever no dice in the multi-die package are in the first state.

29. The method of claim 28, comprising:

enabling at least one pull-up transistors associated with the die depending on a size of the second die.

30. A system comprising:

a device comprising a plurality of dice and a common output coupled to at least two dice included in the plurality of dice, wherein each of the dice coupled to the common output have a first drive parameter value in a first state and a second drive parameter value in a second state, and wherein the common output can be used to indicate that all of the dice coupled to the common output are in the first state if at least one of the dice coupled to the common output are in the first state;

a processor to process information stored in the device; and

a management component to submit a status request to the plurality of dice.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the management component is coupled to the common output and receives an output from the common output.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein at least one of the plurality of dice comprise:

a set of pull-up transistors coupled to the common output;

a set of pull-down transistors coupled to the common output; and

a controller coupled to the set of pull-up transistors and the set of pull-down transistors, wherein the controller is configured to selectively enable the pull-up and pull-down transistors to provide an indication of either the first or the second states.

33. A method comprising:

receiving from a management component a status request that requests whether a die in a multi-die package is in a first state or a second state, the first and second states corresponding to opposite states between an active state of the die and an inactive state of said die;

driving a common output with an output drive of a die in the multi-die package in response to the status request to obtain a first drive parameter value when said die is in a first state; and

an output drive of said die in the multi-die package having a second drive parameter value to drive the common output in response to the status request when said die is in a second state different from the first state, wherein said common output is driven in response to the status request to indicate the first state whenever at least one die in the multi-die package is in the first state, and wherein said common output is driven in response to the status request to indicate the second state whenever no dice in the multi-die package are in the first state.

34. The method of claim 33, comprising:

enabling pull-down transistors for one or more dice in the multi-die package to obtain said first drive parameter value.

35. The method of claim 33, comprising:

enabling pull-up transistors for one or more dice in the multi-die package to obtain said first drive parameter value.