US Patent Application 18169560. SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE INCLUDING REFERENCE CELLS AND A METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF simplified abstract

SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE INCLUDING REFERENCE CELLS AND A METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF

Organization Name

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.

Inventor(s)

Po-Hao Lee of Hsinchu City (TW)

Yi-Chun Shih of Taipei (TW)

Chia-Fu Lee of Hsinchu City (TW)

Yu-Der Chih of Hsinchu City (TW)

SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE INCLUDING REFERENCE CELLS AND A METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - A simplified explanation of the abstract

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 18169560 titled 'SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE INCLUDING REFERENCE CELLS AND A METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF

Simplified Explanation

The patent application describes a semiconductor device and a method of operating it.

• The semiconductor device includes multiple memory cells.
• It has a first reference cell connected to a subset of the memory cells via a first common source line.
• It also has a second reference cell connected to another subset of the memory cells via a second common source line.
• The device includes a sense amplifier that is used when reading from a memory cell in the first subset.
• The sense amplifier receives outputs from both the second reference cell and the memory cell being read.
• The purpose of this configuration is to improve the accuracy and reliability of reading data from the memory cells.

Original Abstract Submitted

A semiconductor device and a method of operating the semiconductor device are disclosed. In one aspect, the semiconductor device includes a plurality of memory cells, a first reference cell connected to a first subset of the plurality of memory cells via a first common source line, and a second reference cell connected to a second subset of the plurality of memory storage cells via a second common source line. The semiconductor device also includes a sense amplifier configured to, when reading from a first memory cell of the first subset, receive an output from the second reference cell and an output from the first memory cell.