Patents Examined by Eugene R. LaRoche
  • Patent number: 5357477
    Abstract: A memory includes a memory cell array unit, a plurality of memory cell bit lines connected to the memory cell array unit, a plurality of column selecting gates, and a plurality of sub data lines connected to the memory cell bit lines via the column selecting gates. A column selector serves to select and make conductive members of the column selecting gates so that data can be transmitted between successive members of the memory cell bit lines and the sub data lines. The memory further includes N-bit main data lines, where N denotes a given natural number. In addition, the memory includes data line selecting gates. The sub data lines are connected to the main data lines via the data line selecting gates. A data line selector serves to select and make conductive members of the data line selecting gates so that data can be transmitted between N successive members of the sub data lines and the main data lines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 1992
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihiro Matsumoto, Hideo Nishimatsu
  • Patent number: 5357468
    Abstract: A semiconductor memory device according to the present invention comprises a first and second nodes, a first power supply for supplying a supply power potential to the first node, a memory cell for storing data therein; a bit line connected to the memory cell, a sense amplifier connected to the second node, for amplifying a potential of the bit line; a switching circuit connected between the first and second nodes, for coupling the first node with second node in response to a first control signal and substantial disconnecting the first node from the second node in response to a second control signal, a detecting circuit for detecting a potential of the second node and outputting a detection signal when the potential of second node is substantialy equal to the supply power potential, a control circuit applied an address signal having a first or second logic level thereto, for outputting the first control signal in response to the address signal being the first logic level and outputting the second control sign
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Assignee: Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Norihiko Satani, Shizuo Cho, Yuichi Matsushita, Tetsuya Mitoma
  • Patent number: 5357458
    Abstract: A system for allowing a content addressable memory (CAM) to operate with first and second power voltage levels including: a first input voltage for providing a first bias to the content addressable memory; a second input voltage for providing a second bias to the content addressable memory; and a selection device coupled to the first input voltage and the second input voltage for decoupling the first input voltage from the content addressable memory and coupling the second input voltage to the content addressable memory in response to coupling the second power voltage level to the content addressable memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: James Yu, Tiao-Hua Kuo
  • Patent number: 5357369
    Abstract: The invention is used with a display (10) of a left and right stereoscopic images in adjacent side-by-side array on a two-dimensional imaging surface such as the screen of a computer monitor or television. The left and right images (L and R) are rotated by 90 degrees in opposite directions from their normal upright orientations. A viewing device which includes a right pair of mirrors (2 and 4) and a left pair of mirrors (1 and 3) is placed between the viewer and the display. The mirrors are oriented at fixed and predetermined angular relationship to deflect the lines of sight from the viewer's eyes to the respective right and left images, and to rotate them by 90 degrees. As a result, the users left and right eyes see upright versions of the left and right images, respectively, creating a wide-field stereoscopic illusion of the images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 1992
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Inventors: Geoffrey Pilling, Max E. Tegmark, Edward Larmore
  • Patent number: 5357463
    Abstract: A method of erasing, programming, and verifying a flash electrically erasable programmable read-only memory where all cells are first erased to a high threshold voltage, preferably by simultaneous Fowler-Nordheim tunnelling, and then selected cells are programmed to a low threshold voltage using Fowler-Nordheim tunnelling. Programming is achieved by applying a negative voltage to the selected wordline and applying a positive voltage to the selected bitline. Only those cells which have both the wordline and bitline selected will have sufficient wordline-to-bitline voltage difference to cause programming. A key advantage of this new method is that a verification (read) procedure can be used to monitor for the desirable tight distribution, low threshold voltage V.sub.t on programmed cells and re-program only those cells which have a V.sub.t higher than the desired V.sub.t.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 1992
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Assignee: Micron Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventor: Wayne I. Kinney
  • Patent number: 5357460
    Abstract: A semiconductor memory device which comprises unit memory cells each including two transistors each having a source/drain region and a gate electrode and one capacitor having a capacitor dielectric film, an upper electrode and a lower electrode, the gate electrode of each transistor being connected to a common word line, one source/drain region of each transistor being connected to a bit line and a reversed bit line respectively and the other source/drain region being connected to the upper electrode and the lower electrode respectively, and the bit line, the reversed bit line and the word line being disposed under the lower electrode of the capacitor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 1992
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tatsushi Yusuki, Shigeo Onishi, Kenichi Tanaka, Keizo Sakiyama, Katsuji Iguchi
  • Patent number: 5357500
    Abstract: A pickup feeding apparatus is comprised of a first rack provided on a pickup supporting member supported so as to become movable along a guide shaft, a second rack provided slidably relative to the first rack, a drive force transmitting gear for transmitting a driving force of a driving source to the first and second racks, a spring member for spring-biasing one of the first and second racks to the other along the guide shaft of the first and second racks in such a direction that gear teeth of a gear of the drive force transmitting means which are meshed with the first and second racks are gripped. A disc player is also disclosed, in which a disc drive motor and a pickup feeding motor are provided on the same chassis and the disc drive motor is located on the chassis at the position above the pickup moving locus fed by the pickup feeding device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 1994
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Tetsu Yanagisawa
  • Patent number: 5357466
    Abstract: A Flash memory cell has a self-limiting erase to prevent over-erase and delivers a preset constant read current. The memory cell comprises first and second MOS transistors. The first and second transistors have a common source, first and second separate drains, a common floating gate and a common control gate. The first transistor has a higher threshold voltage than the second transistor. The cell is programmable by introducing a charge into the common floating gate. The cell is erasable by applying a voltage to the common source to discharge the floating gate. A feedback path is provided between the drain of the second transistor and the common control gate to limit the discharge to prevent over-erasing. The cell can be read by applying a read voltage to the common control gate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Assignee: United Microelectronics Corporation
    Inventor: Gary Hong
  • Patent number: 5357478
    Abstract: A plurality of sub chips are formed on a chip. An input/output buffer region is arranged around the plurality of sub chips. Each sub chip includes a sub chip control circuit region and a plurality of memory cell array blocks. Each memory cell array block includes a memory cell array region, a row decoder and control circuit region, a sense amplifier region and an input/output latch region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 1991
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shigeru Kikuda, Shigeru Mori, Yoshikazu Morooka, Hiroshi Miyamoto, Makoto Suwa, Mitsuya Kinoshita
  • Patent number: 5357461
    Abstract: An output circuit is incorporated in an integrated circuit for communicating with an external device, and includes a plurality of output inverting circuits. Each such inverting circuit is implemented by a series combination of a p-channel enhancement type field effect transistor and an n-channel enhancement type field effect transistor. The inverting circuits are coupled between a positive power voltage line and a ground voltage line electrically connected with a semiconductor substrate. The output circuit also includes a plurality of output pins, each coupled between an external load and one of the output inverting circuits, and a resistive element coupled between the ground voltage line and the semiconductor substrate, so that the ground voltage line hardly fluctuates in voltage level upon concurrent switching actions of the output inverting circuits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 1991
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Hideo Inaba
  • Patent number: 5357480
    Abstract: An address change detection system detects a change in an address input in a memory to initiate a read or write operation. The address change detection system uses a transition detection delay unit for each address bit of the memory. The transition detection delay unit is responsive to a change in an associated address bit to provide a clock output pulse of predetermined duration. The transition detection delay unit comprises a latch which is coupled to the associated address bit, and a pair of Delay Ring Segment Buffers, each coupled to a respective output of the latch. The output of the Delay Ring Segment Buffer is provided to cascaded NAND gates to form the output of the transition detection delay unit. The outputs of all of the transition detection delay units are provided to an OR gate, the output of which provides an indication of an address change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 1994
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Assignee: Thunderbird Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Albert W. Vinal
  • Patent number: 5357470
    Abstract: A semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of memory cell arrays, a plurality of decoders for decoding a first address of memory addresses, each of the decoders being connected to a corresponding memory cell array, and a plurality of sense amplifiers, each connected to a corresponding memory cell array. Also included are a decoder for decoding a second address of the memory addresses, the decoder being connected to every memory cell array, to be shared by every memory cell array, a plurality of redundancy memory cells, each of which is arranged for a corresponding memory cell array, and a plurality of programming circuits, each, arranged relative to a corresponding memory cell array to receive the first memory address and output a signal of a predetermined logic level corresponding to a defective memory cell in a memory cell array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Toshimasa Namekawa, Yoshio Okada
  • Patent number: 5357471
    Abstract: Architecture for a memory device and a method for employing the architecture for testing of the memory device are provided. In a memory device such as a one-time programmable EPROM, an extra row and an extra column of memory cells are added to the regular array. The extra column is configured so that, during a first test configuration, a sense device connected to the column line of the extra column of cells will detect whether exactly one row line of the correct parity is selected in response to input of a row address. Similarly, the extra row is configured so that the sense amp connected to the column lines of the regular array, can determine whether exactly one column line of the correct parity from the regular array is selected in response to input of a column address. The row decoder and row address lines are tested separately from the testing of the column decoder and column address lines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 1992
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Assignee: National Semiconductor Corporation
    Inventor: Varkey P. Alapat
  • Patent number: 5357462
    Abstract: A NAND-cell type EEPROM includes an array of memory cells connected to bit lines. Each cell includes one transistor with a floating gate and a control gate electrode, wherein electrons are tunneled to or from the floating gate to write a data thereinto. A sense/latch circuit is connected to the bit lines, and selectively performs a sense operation and a latch operation of the write data. A program controller is provided for writing the data into a selected memory cell in a designated area, and for reading the data written in the selected cell to verify whether or not its resultant threshold voltage falls within an allowable range. If it is insufficient, the data is rewritten thereinto.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 1992
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Tomoharu Tanaka, Yoshiyuki Tanaka, Hiroshi Nakamura, Hideko Odaira
  • Patent number: 5355342
    Abstract: A semiconductor memory device is subjected to a dynamic bias test upon completion of a fabrication process for screening out a product with potential defects, and a block selecting unit incorporated in the semiconductor memory device is responsive to block address bits for allowing an external device to access data bits stored in one of the memory cell blocks, wherein the block selecting unit is further responsive to a test signal indicative of the dynamic bias test for allowing a diagnostic system to write test bits into or read out the test bits from all of the memory cell blocks, thereby quickly completing the dynamic bias test.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 11, 1994
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Junji Ueoka
  • Patent number: 5355341
    Abstract: An electrically-programmable integrated circuit memory in which the selected memory cell is read by comparing its current output with that of a reference cell, plus a bias current. The bias current is different in test mode than it would be during a normal read operation. The result of this is that, in test mode, cells whose current output is marginal in the unprogrammed state will be detected as faulty, even though those same cells would correctly be read as unprogrammed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 11, 1994
    Assignee: SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, S.A.
    Inventors: Jean-Marie Gaultier, Gerard S. de Ferron, Roberto Gastaldi
  • Patent number: 5355339
    Abstract: Disclosed is a semiconductor device with redundancy for replacing a memory cell with a predetermined defect with additional spare cells. In a semiconductor memory device having a plurality of normal submemory arrays, the present invention discloses a redundancy technique that allows any redundant address decoder to be used with any of the submemory arrays. This maximizes efficiency in redundant repairs as well as maximizes the use of the chip area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 11, 1994
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co.
    Inventors: Seung-Cheol Oh, Moon-Gone Kim
  • Patent number: 5355344
    Abstract: Two addresses of an integrated circuit are selected to define a portion of the die which is functional and the portion of the die which will not be used. An input structure for addresses, which may be added to part of the electrostatic discharge (ESD) input structure of a pin, allows an address signal to be set to a predetermined logic level and to not be bonded out to the package. Additionally, another input structure allows the mapping of a signal pin to be changed. The function of a pin may need to be changed to accommodate a pinout for a different density device. This is useful when a die is put into a smaller density device package which has a pin out that does not accommodate the die. In this way, partially functional die that previously were discarded may be utilized, thereby recouping potential losses during manufacturing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 1992
    Date of Patent: October 11, 1994
    Assignee: SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, Inc.
    Inventor: David C. McClure
  • Patent number: 5355330
    Abstract: A semiconductor memory device whose data hold condition is not affected due to degradation of transistor characteristics by minimizing leakage charges and the switching transistor size. The semiconductor memory device employs memory cell charge holding electrode that is insulated from the remaining memory cell structure, particularly the switching transistor source drain leakage path. The write element controls the tunneling of charge carriers through such insulator to the charge holding portion or capacitor electrode, for writing data. Particularly, the write element includes a PN junction for various advantages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 1992
    Date of Patent: October 11, 1994
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Dai Hisamoto, Shoji Shukuri, Kazuhiko Sagara, Shinichiro Kimura, Shinichi Minami, Eiji Takeda
  • Patent number: 5355336
    Abstract: A memory device connected to a CPU and including a plurality of memory elements selectable between a writable state and an unwritable state, the CPU outputting an address signal for selecting at least one of the plurality of memory elements, data to be stored in the plurality of memory elements, and a write signal for selecting the writable state or the unwritable state of the plurality of memory elements to the memory device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 11, 1994
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Katsuyuki Yoshioka