Patent ID: 8508974

Claim:
A method of operating a ferroelectric memory device, the method comprising: biasing a ferroelectric capacitor to a first state by applying a voltage across the ferroelectric capacitor and removing the voltage; wherein removing the voltage comprises electrically disconnecting the ferroelectric capacitor from a bit line through a transmission gate by deactivating a word line and a compliment word line, the word line and the compliment word line respectively electrically connected to gate elements of the transmission gate; electrically coupling a first side of the ferroelectric capacitor to a second side of the ferroelectric capacitor through a shunt switch in response to activation of the shunt switch by the compliment word line; wherein electrically coupling a first side of the ferroelectric capacitor to a second side of the ferroelectric capacitor removes charge build up between the ferroelectric capacitor and the transmission gate in response to deactivation of the compliment word line; applying a pre-charge to the bit line at approximately a same time as activating the complement word line and removing the pre-charge to the bit line at approximately a same time as deactivating the complement word line.