Patent ID: 6608796
Filing Date: 2003-08-19
Classification: G11C

Abstract:
In combination with a memory matrix having word lines and memory cells connected to the word lines, the word lines having respective input terminals and respective remote terminals provided remote from the input terminals, a circuit configuration for performing a selective changeover of the word lines between an activation potential enabling access to given ones of the memory cells connected to a given one of the word lines and a deactivation potential inhibiting access to the given ones of the memory cells, the circuit configuration comprising:a plurality of selectively addressable drivers each connected to a respective one of the input terminals of a respectively assigned one of the word lines and each being controllable by an assigned selection signal and a deactivation signal in order to connect the respective one of the input terminals to the activation potential if the selection signal is in an active state and the deactivation signal is in an inactive state, and in order to connect the respective one of the input terminals to the deactivation potential when the deactivation signal becomes active; a source for providing the deactivation potential; a plurality of auxiliary circuits connected to respective ones of the word lines at at least a respective one of the remote terminals, said plurality of auxiliary circuits including respective deactivation auxiliary switches each of which, depending on an assigned auxiliary switching signal, selectively establishes and inhibits a low-impedance conductive connection between a respective one the remote terminals and said source for providing the deactivation potential; and a timing control circuit generating the respectively assigned auxiliary switching signal in a temporal relationship with the deactivation signal such that a corresponding one of the deactivation auxiliary switches is turned off while a corresponding one of said selectively addressable drivers of an assigned one of the word lines connects a corresponding one of the input terminals to the activation potential, and is turned on again as soon as said corresponding one of said selectively addressable drivers connects the corresponding one of the input terminals to the deactivation potential as a result of the deactivation signal becoming active.