CIRCUIT AND METHOD FOR REFRESHING INTEGRATED CIRCUIT MEMORY, AND REFRESH CIRCUIT FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUIT MEMORY

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a refresh circuit which is used to refresh discontinuous sub-arrays or mask them against refresh in an integrated circuit memory array. SOLUTION: When each masked refresh cycle is started, an address input which is normally ignored is evaluated to indicate which sub-arrays should be refreshed and which sub-arrays should not be refreshed. Power is saved by the flexibility allowed at the time of determining which sub-array should be refreshed in each new refresh cycle. COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI