Buried metal techniques
Various implementations described herein are related to a device having bitline drivers coupled to passgates of bitcells via bitlines and buried metal lines formed within a substrate including a buried enable signal line and a buried ground line coupled to ground connections of the bitline drivers. The buried enable signal line transfers a negative bias to a selected bitline of the bitlines via the buried ground line that is coupled to the ground connections of the bitline drivers so as to increase gate-source bias of the passgates of the selected bitcell to thereby enhance write capability of the selected bitcell.
1. A device comprising:
bitline drivers coupled to passgates of bitcells via bitlines; and
buried metal lines formed within a substrate including a buried enable signal line and a buried ground line coupled to ground connections of the bitline drivers,
wherein the buried enable signal line transfers a negative bias to a selected bitline of the bitlines via the buried ground line that is coupled to the ground connections of the bitline drivers so as to increase gate-source bias of the passgates of a selected bitcell to thereby enhance write capability of the selected bitcell.
2. The device of claim 1 , wherein:
the buried metal lines are disposed parallel to the bitlines, and
the buried enable signal line is disposed parallel to the buried ground line.
3. The device of claim 1 , wherein:
capacitive coupling from the buried metal lines to the bitlines temporarily generates negative gate-to-source voltage at the passgates of the selected bitcell so as to improve writability of the selected bitcell.
4. The device of claim 1 , wherein:
the buried enable signal line is separate from the buried ground line, and
during a write operation, the buried enable signal line couples to the buried ground line by way of buried metal coupling capacitance.
5. The device of claim 4 , wherein:
the buried enable signal line provides an enable signal,
the buried ground line provides a ground signal,
during the write operation, a falling edge of the enable signal couples to a ground signal line by way of buried metal coupling capacitance, and
the ground signal transfers a negative bias to the selected bitline through a bitline driver so as to increase gate-source bias of a passgate of the selected bitcell to thereby enhance the write capability of the selected bitcell.
6. The device of claim 1 , wherein:
the bitcells are formed and disposed on the substrate above a portion of the buried metal lines formed within the substrate underneath the bitcells, and
the bitline drivers are formed and disposed on the substrate above another portion of the buried metal lines formed within the substrate underneath the bitline drivers.
7. The device of claim 1 , wherein:
the bitcells are formed and disposed on the substrate, and
the bitline drivers are formed and disposed on the substrate above the buried metal lines formed within the substrate underneath the bitline drivers.
8. The device of claim 1 , wherein:
the buried enable signal line includes multiple buried enable signal lines including a first buried enable signal line and a second buried enable signal line,
when activated, the first buried enable signal line provides a first level of coupling capacitance to the buried ground line, and
when activated, the second buried enable signal line provides a second level of coupling capacitance to the buried ground line by boosting the first level.
9. A device comprising:
memory having an array of bitcells formed on a substrate;
a buried metal line formed within the substrate; and
input-output logic coupled to the buried metal line,
wherein:
the input-output logic is configured to selectively supply voltage through the buried metal line to power supply connections of selected bitcells of the array,
the input-output logic comprises logic gates configured to generate an enable signal, and
the input-output logic selectively supplies voltage through the buried metal line based on the enable signal.
10. The device of claim 9 , wherein:
the input-output logic supplies voltage to selected columns of the bitcells based on the enable signal and a column select signal,
the input-output logic supplies voltage to the power supply connections of the bitcells by way of the buried metal line based on the enable signal and the column select signal, and
during a write operation, the buried metal line couples to the power supply connections of the selected columns of bitcells by way of charge sharing to temporarily bias the selected bitcell to a lower supply voltage so as to thereby enhance write capability of the selected bitcell.
11. The device of claim 10 , wherein:
the bitcells are disposed on the substrate above a first portion of the buried metal line formed within the substrate underneath the bitcells, and
the input-output logic is disposed on the substrate above a second portion of the buried metal line formed within the substrate underneath the input-output logic.
12. The device of claim 9 , wherein the input-output logic supplies voltage to the power supply connections of the selected bitcells via metal coupling of the buried metal line.
13. The device of claim 9 , wherein the input-output logic is configured to selectively supply voltage through the buried metal line to power supply connections of the selected bitcells based on a column selection signal.
14. The device of claim 9 , wherein:
the buried metal line is coupled to power supply connections of word-line drivers; and
the word-line drivers are configured to selectively supply voltage to the selected bitcells through corresponding word-lines.