Abstract:
A method and system are disclosed for refreshing a memory module. After identifying a beginning of a memory module for a refreshing operation, at least one address within the memory module being accessed is identified. When the refreshing operation approaches the identified accessed memory address, the refreshing operation is to be skipped, thereby skipping a predetermined number of clock cycles due to the skipped refreshing operation.

Description:
BACKGROUND  
       [0001]     The present disclosure relates generally to semiconductor devices, and more particularly to semiconductor memory devices. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to the circuit and method that reduce power consumption of a semiconductor memory device. This modified refresh circuit and method would reduce the device power consumption, thereby improving both efficiency and stability in semiconductor memory devices.  
         [0002]     The invention relates to a circuit for controlling information refreshing operations of the memory blocks in a semiconductor memory device, such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device, and to a corresponding method in which a periodic sequence of control signals trigger the information refreshing operation of the DRAM semiconductor device memory blocks.  
         [0003]     In DRAMs, it is necessary for the information stored in the memory cells to be periodically refreshed, since the memory cells can retain the information stored in them for only a limited time. Typically, DRAM memory cells use capacitors to store information. Since these capacitors discharge themselves after a specific time as a result of unavoidable internal quiescent currents, the stored charges of the capacitors have to be regularly renewed. The period of time in which the memory cells hold their stored charge is known as its data retention time. The memory cells are therefore recharged at fixed predetermined time intervals, so-called refresh cycles. The pulse for recharging, the so-called refresh pulse, can be generated internally within the module or else externally. In modern DRAMs, refresh cycles of at least 4096 refreshing operations per 64 ms (refresh rate 4K/64 ms) are customary.  
         [0004]     The refresh cycle for the DRAM, i.e. the interval between the individual refresh pulses, must be chosen such that even the memory cell with the shortest retention time, which specifies how long the memory content can be retained in the associated cell, is refreshed again before information is permanently lost.  
         [0005]     The conventional refresh method for DRAMs perform simultaneous refreshing operations on all memory blocks of the DRAM. This results in a high peak instantaneous current spike within the DRAM device. The current spike generates additional internal noise that can affect circuit operation and cause larger supply voltage fluctuations. In addition, since supply voltage power regulators must be designed to handle this peak current requirement, the overall memory design becomes not only less efficient but also more space-consuming.  
         [0006]     Desirable in the art of semiconductor memory device designs are additional designs that may reduce the peak current during memory refresh while improving read/write performance and reducing power consumption.  
       SUMMARY  
       [0007]     In view of the foregoing, this disclosure provides a circuit and method to reduce power consumption of a semiconductor memory device, thereby improving access performance and device stability.  
         [0008]     In one example, a method and system are disclosed for refreshing a memory module. After identifying a beginning of a memory module for a refreshing operation, at least one address within the memory module being accessed is identified. When the refreshing operation approaches the identified accessed memory address, the refreshing operation is to be skipped, thereby skipping a predetermined number of clock cycles due to the skipped refreshing operation.  
         [0009]     Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a circuit and method for refreshing a memory module, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.  
         [0010]     The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]      FIG. 1A  illustrates a conventional DRAM refresh circuit.  
         [0012]      FIG. 1B  illustrates a refresh sequence timing diagram for the conventional DRAM refresh circuit.  
         [0013]      FIG. 2  illustrates a modified DRAM refresh circuit in accordance with one example of the present disclosure.  
         [0014]      FIG. 3A  illustrates an address comparator for the modified DRAM refresh circuit in accordance with one example of the present disclosure.  
         [0015]      FIG. 3B  illustrates a refresh sequence timing diagram for the address comparator for the modified DRAM refresh circuit in accordance with one example of the present disclosure.  
         [0016]      FIG. 4  illustrates a refresh sequence timing diagram for the modified DRAM refresh circuit in accordance with one example of the present disclosure. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION  
       [0017]     In the present disclosure, one example of a circuit and method to reduce power consumption of a semiconductor memory device is disclosed.  
         [0018]      FIG. 1A  illustrates a conventional DRAM refresh circuit  100  containing 1024 word lines. In this diagram, a clock signal CLK is fed into a refresh control circuit  102  and an access control circuit  104  to provide address register synchronization with the DRAM device refreshing and access operations. A block select signal BS# and an access signal WR# are fed into the access control circuit  104  for memory block selection and access operation, respectively. It is understood that an access operation may refer to either a read or a write operation.  
         [0019]     The refresh control circuit  102  generates a periodic refresh request signal RFRQ at the appropriate time for the refreshing operation as needed by the DRAM device. This refresh request RFRQ signal is routed to the access control circuit  104 , which generates a refresh command signal RFC to control the sequence of the refreshing operation. The refresh command signal RFC is sent to the refresh control circuit  102  and a refresh address counter  106  to provide logic control of these circuits. The refresh address counter  106  always counts a refresh address RA (0:9) sequentially. RA (0:9) indicates a 10-bit refresh address for the 1024 word lines. The refresh command signal RFC is also sent to an address buffer  108 , which transfers the current refresh address RA (0:9) to a word line decoder circuit  110  for selection of the desired word line to be refreshed. The word line refresh sequence is always scanned from word line 0 to word line 1023. The refresh command signal RFC is generated only during a refreshing operation, and is controlled by the access control circuit  104 .  
         [0020]     During an access operation, the access control circuit  104  generates an access control signal ACC. The access control signal ACC is routed to the address buffer  108 , which transfers the desired access address A (0:9) to the word line decoder circuit  110  to select the desired word line WL (0:1023) to be read from or written to. A (0:9) indicates a 10-bit access address for the 1024 word lines. The access control signal ACC is generated only during an access operation as controlled by the access control circuit  104 . Typically, the ACC signal allows a write operation when both signals BS# and WR# are low, and a read operation when signal BS# is low and signal WR# is high. During the normal operation of the DRAM refresh circuit  100 , a word line may first be accessed for an access operation, thereby refreshing that word line. The same word line may then be selected again for a refresh due to the refreshing operation a few clock cycles later. This refresh repetition for the same word line within just a few clock cycles is unnecessary, and may not only decrease DRAM performance but also increase DRAM power consumption. Peak power consumption may be significantly increased if many memory blocks are simultaneously refreshed.  
         [0021]      FIG. 1B  illustrates a refresh sequence timing diagram  112  for the conventional DRAM refresh circuit  100 . The clock signal CLK provides address-register synchronization with the refreshing and access operations of the associated DRAM device. The refresh control circuit  102  generates a periodic refresh request signal RFRQ at the appropriate time for the refreshing operation as needed by the DRAM device. This refresh request signal RFRQ is routed to the access control circuit  104 , which generates the refresh command signal RFC to control the sequence of the refreshing operation. The refresh address counter  106  always counts a refresh address RA (0:9) sequentially from word line 0 to word line 1023. This is shown by the “refreshed WL” line in the timing diagram  112 , which is controlled by the refresh addresses RA (0:9). This sequence of refresh cycles is fixed by the control circuitry and does not allow for reduction of unnecessary refresh cycles.  
         [0022]      FIG. 2  illustrates a modified DRAM refresh circuit  200  containing 1024 word lines that will reduce the number of refreshing operations required by the DRAM in accordance with one example of the present disclosure. A clock signal CLK is fed into the refresh control circuit  102  and the access control circuit  104  to provide address-register synchronization with the refreshing and access operations of the DRAM device. The signals BS# and WR# are fed into the access control logic  104  for memory block selection and access operation, respectively. When the DRAM device is accessed for the first time, a signal ACC_first is generated by the access control circuit  104  on the first rising edge of the ACC signal. The signal ACC_first is then sent to the refresh address counter  106  to load the starting access address A (0:9) and to load the starting refresh address, which is A+1. In this example, A (0:9) represents the access address that selects the word lines to be accessed for an access operation, whereas RA (0:9) represents the refresh address that selects the word lines to be accessed for a refreshing operation. The word line access sequence and the refresh sequence are always scanned from word line 0 to word line 1023.  
         [0023]     The refresh control circuit  102  generates the periodic refresh request signal RFRQ (RFRQ is high) at the appropriate time for the refreshing operation as needed by the DRAM device. This refresh request RFRQ signal is routed to the access control circuit  104 , which generates the refresh command signal RFC to control the sequence of the refreshing operation. The access control circuit  104  also generates the access control signal ACC (ACC is high) to allow access to the selected memory cells for a read or write operation. The refresh request signal RFRQ would generate the refresh command signal RFC to execute refreshing operation when ACC is low. (It means no read or write operation). The memory would be idle without any operation when ACC is low and RFC is low too.  
         [0024]     When the access control signal ACC is low, the refresh command signal RFC is sent to one input of the OR gate  202  and to the address buffer  108  to provide logic control of these circuits. The refresh command signal RFC sent to the address buffer  108  transfers the current refresh address RA (0:9) from an address comparator  204  to the word line decoder circuit  110  for the selection of the word line desired to be refreshed.  
         [0025]     When access control signal ACC is high, a dummy refresh signal RFCA is enabled (RFCA is high) only if the current refresh address RA (0:9) is equivalent to the acce0ss address A (0:9). When the dummy refresh signal RFCA is enabled, the current refresh address is skipped, and the refresh address counter  106  is sequenced to the next refresh address. In other words, the dummy refresh signal RFCA indicates that, since the refresh address RA (0:9) has just been accessed (read from or written to), the data is up-to-date and needs not be refreshed.  
         [0026]     During operation, since many addresses may be accessed, refreshing operations may be skipped for those addresses. Since the refresh cycle is determined by the period between two refreshing operations of a word line, the refresh cycle may be shortened if refreshing operations of various addresses are skipped. The shortened refresh cycle is undesirable and unnecessary for a particular DRAM device design. To ensure that the shortened refresh cycle is re-synchronized with the refresh cycle as predetermined by the DRAM device design, a refresh stop signal RF_stop is enabled at the end of a shortened refresh cycle. This refresh stop signal RF_stop ensures that a shortened refresh cycle is synchronized with the actual hardware refresh cycle.  
         [0027]      FIG. 3A  illustrates an address comparator  300  for the modified DRAM refresh circuit  200  in accordance with one example of the present disclosure. The address comparator  300 , when activated by the access control signal ACC, determines when the access address lines are identical to the refresh lines. When the two lines are identical, a refreshing operation for that word line may not be needed. The address comparator  300  generates the dummy refresh signal RFCA during the access enable sequence (when ACC is high). Since this dummy refresh signal RFCA will not generate a refresh request RFRQ in the refresh control circuit  102 , the refresh command signal RFC will not be generated in the access control circuit  104 . Instead, the refresh address counter  106  will be incremented to the next refresh word line. This circuit includes ten identical exclusive NOR (XNOR) gates  302 , all of whose outputs feed into an AND gate  304 . The XNOR gates  302  provide a high output only when the access address A is identical to the refresh address RA. For example, if refresh address line RA (6) is low and the access address line A (6) is also low, the output of the XNOR gate  302  is set to high. By contrast, if the access address line A and the refresh address line RA_are in opposite states, the output of the XNOR gate  302  is set to low. Only when all the AND gate  304  inputs are high and the access control signal ACC is high, will the AND gate  304  enable the high dummy refresh command signal RFCA (RFCA is high). During all other combinations of the AND gate  304  input signals, or if the access control signal ACC is low, the dummy refresh signal RFCA will remain low.  
         [0028]      FIG. 3B  illustrates a refresh sequence timing diagram  306  for the address comparator  300  for the modified DRAM refresh circuit  200  in accordance with one example of the present disclosure. Row  308  shows the refresh address lines RA (0) to RA (9) columns. Row  310  indicates when the DRAM access operation begins, at which time the signal ACC_first is set to high by the access control circuit  104  on the rising edge of the first ACC signal. In this example, the leading edge of the first access cycle occurs when A equals 0000101000. Therefore, row  310  represents the first RA address, which is A+1 or 0000101001. Row  312  indicates the normal refreshing operation by sequentially incrementing to the next RA address 0000101010. In this example, this process continues to 1111111111 (row  314 ) and then starts back at 000000000 and continues, passing  0000100111  (row  316 ), until RA equals to A−1, or 0000101000 (row  318 ). Upon the next increment of the refresh address lines, when RA equals to A, the refresh stop signal RF_stop is set to high. The refresh stop signal RF_stop remains high until the shortened refresh cycle is re-synchronized with the refresh cycle as predetermined by the DRAM device design. The difference between the shortened refresh cycle and the DRAM device refresh cycle is tracked by a counter NR_counter. The counter NR_counter increments when a refreshing operation is skipped, while the NR_counter decrements when the refresh stop signal RF_stop is enabled. For example, if three refreshing operations are skipped while refreshing  1024  word lines, three periods of no refreshing operations are appended to the shortened refresh cycle to ensure that the shortened refresh cycle is re-synchronized with the DRAM device refresh cycle. During the three periods, no additional refreshing operations (i.e. refresh command signal RFC) will be generated until the counter NR_counter has counted down to 0 again, at which time the refresh stop signal RF_stop is disabled, thereby allowing the refresh cycles to begin once again.  
         [0029]      FIG. 4  illustrates a refresh sequence timing diagram  400  for the modified DRAM refresh circuit  200  in accordance with one example of the present disclosure. In this example,  100  refreshing operations will be skipped, thereby reducing power consumption. The refresh stop signal RF_stop ensures that 100 non-refreshing periods are appended to the end of the shortened refresh cycle such that the shortened refresh cycle is re-synchronized with the DRAM device refresh cycle.  
         [0030]     With reference to  FIG. 4 , an attempt to refresh the word line 0 coincides with a write command to the word line 0 (location  402 ). As such, RA equals to A, thereby generating the dummy refresh signal RFCA (RFCA is high), which is used to increment the refresh address counter to the next word line. Therefore, the word line 0 is not refreshed, while the counter NR_counter is incremented from “0” to “1”. When the word line 1 is selected for refresh, RA does not equal to A. As such, the periodic refresh request signal RFRQ is generated, thereby generating the refresh command signal RFC and triggering a refreshing operation on the word line 1. The word line 2 is also refreshed in the same manner. At location  404 , an attempt to refresh word line 3 coincides with a write command to the same word line. Since RA equals to A, the dummy refresh signal RFCA is generated (RFCA is high) to increment the refresh address counter to the next word line. As such, the word line 3 is not refreshed, while the counter NR_counter is incremented from “1” to “2”. After that, the refresh cycle increments to the word line 4, and continues until location  406 , when an attempt to refresh the word line 1022 coincides with a read command for the word line 1022. Therefore, the refreshing operation for the word line 1022 is skipped, while the counter NR_counter is incremented from “99” to “100” (meaning that 100 refresh cycles have been skipped). The refresh cycle is then incremented to the word line 1023, which is the last word line in this example with 1024 word lines. When the refresh address counter starts over again at word line 0 (location  408 ), the refresh stop signal RF_stop is set to high, thereby stopping any further refresh cycles (at location  410 , where no RFRQ or RFC signals are generated) until the counter NR_counter has been counted down to “0” again. When the counter NR_counter reaches “0” (at location  412 ), the refresh stop signal RF_stop deactivates (at location  414 ) and is set to low, thereby restarting the refresh cycle.  
         [0031]     By eliminating unnecessary refreshing operations that may arise after an access operation, power consumption may be reduced. Peak power consumption may also be reduced when many word lines in different memory blocks are refreshed at once. By generating a refresh stop signal, the shortened refresh cycle is synchronized with the maximum refreshing interval for the DRAM device, thereby further ensuring that refreshing operations are performed only when needed.  
         [0032]     The above disclosure provides many different embodiments or examples for implementing the different features of the disclosure. Specific examples of components and processes are described to help clarify the disclosure. These are, of course, merely examples and are not intended to limit the disclosure from that described in the claims.  
         [0033]     Although illustrative embodiments of the disclosure have been shown and described, other modifications, changes, and substitutions are intended in the foregoing disclosure. Accordingly, it is appropriate that the appended claims be construed broadly and in a manner consistent with the scope of the disclosure, as set forth in the following claims.