Patents Assigned to Qualcomm Technologies, Incorporated
  • Patent number: 10290340
    Abstract: Aspects disclosed in the detailed description include offset-canceling (OC) write operation sensing circuits for sensing switching in a magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) bit cell in an MRAM for a write operation. The OC write operation sensing circuit is configured to sense when MTJ switching occurs in MRAM bit cell. In an example, the OC write operation sensing circuit includes a voltage sensing circuit and a sense amplifier. The voltage sensing circuit employs a capacitive-coupling effect so that the output voltage drops in response to MTJ switching for both logic ‘0’ and logic ‘1’ write operations. The sense amplifier has a single input and a single output node with an output voltage indicating when MTJ switching has occurred in the MRAM bit cell. A single input transistor and pull-up transistor are provided in the sense amplifier in one example to provide an offset-canceling effect.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignees: QUALCOMM Technologies, Incorporated, Yonsei University, University-Industry Foundation
    Inventors: Seong-Ook Jung, Sara Choi, Hong Keun Ahn, Seung Hyuk Kang, Sungryul Kim
  • Patent number: 10224087
    Abstract: Sensing voltage based on a supplied to magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) bit cells in an MRAM for tracking write operations. Sensing voltage based on supply voltage applied to an MRAM bit cell in a write operation can be used to detect completion of magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) switching in an MRAM bit cell to terminate the write operation to reduce power and write times. In exemplary aspects provided herein, reference and write operation voltages sensed from the MRAM bit cell in response to the write operation are compared to each other to detect completion of MTJ switching of voltage based on the supply voltage applied to the MRAM bit cell regardless of whether the write operation is logic ‘0’ or logic ‘1’ write operation. This provides a higher sensing margin, because the change in MTJ resistance after MTJ switching completion is larger at the supply voltage rail.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignees: Qualcomm Technologies, Incorporated, Yonsei University, University Industry Foundation
    Inventors: Seong-Ook Jung, Sara Choi, Hong Keun Ahn, Seung Hyuk Kang, Sungryul Kim