Patent ID: 6781866
Filing Date: 2004-08-24
Classification: G11C

Abstract:
A semiconductor memory comprising a memory cell including at least one transistor element and at least one capacitor element,wherein for the capacitor element, a material is used such that the quantity of residual dielectric polarization in an electroless state in a hysteresis characteristic is not reduced to less than a predetermined threshold value until after the lapse of the time of a refreshing cycle including at least plural clocks, and the semiconductor memory has a sense amplifier for detecting a bit line output current value due to the residual dielectric polarization, the sense amplifier amplifying the bit line output current value to refresh the quantity of residual dielectric polarization of the capacitor element when the quantity of polarization based on the detected value is equal to or larger than a threshold value, and the sense amplifier not amplifying the bit line output current value when the quantity of polarization based on the detected value is less than the threshold value.