Method of operating a boosted wordline

摘要

A method of improving the boosted wordline compliance of a memory circuit. A wordline is grounded prior to boosting with a voltage greater than the circuit bias voltage (e.g. vdd) from a boost voltage generator. Grounding the wordline pulls the gate of a pass transistor to the bias voltage minus a threshold voltage and prepares the pass transistor to self-boost upon boosting the wordline. The transconductance of the pass transistor is improved, improving the charge transfer from the boost generator to the wordline, decreasing rise time. In another embodiment, an isolation transistor between the wordline select circuit and the pass transistor is boosted to provide additional pass transistor gate voltage.