Researchers Submit Patent Application, ’Dynamic Random-Access Memory Array Including Sensor Cells’, for Approval (USPTO 20230099478)

摘要

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors:“The present disclosure relates to systems and method for mitigating DRAM disturbance errors, such asthe errors caused by a rowhammer attack.“Dynamic random-access memory (also known as dynamic RAM or DRAM) is a type of random-accesssemiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell consisting of a tiny capacitor and atransistor. The capacitor of the memory cell can either be charged or discharged (not charged) to representone of the possible binary values 0 and 1. However, the electric charge on the capacitors slowly drops. Inorder to prevent data loss as a result of the capacitor losing charge over time, DRAM requires a memoryrefresh circuit that periodically reads and then immediately rewrites the data in the capacitors. It is thewrite operation that restores the capacitors to their original charge. Refresh circuitry performs a refreshcycle on each row of the DRAM one row at a time to assure that each memory cell is periodically refreshed.A refresh rate may be used to describe the frequency with which each memory cell is refreshed.