The volume, use, and complexity of computers and electronic devices are continually increasing. Computers consistently become more powerful and new and improved electronic devices are continually being developed (e.g., digital audio players, video players). Additionally, the growth and use of digital media (e.g., digital audio, video, images, and the like) have further pushed development of these devices. Such growth and development has vastly increased the amount of information desired/required to be stored and maintained for computer and electronic devices.
Generally, information can be stored and maintained in one or more of a number of types of storage devices, such as memory devices. Memory devices can be subdivided into volatile and non-volatile types. Volatile memory devices generally lose their information if they lose power and typically require periodic refresh cycles to maintain their information. Volatile memory devices include, for example, random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), static RAM (SRAM), and the like. Non-volatile memory devices can maintain their information whether or not power is maintained to the memory devices. Non-volatile memory devices include, but are not limited to, flash memory, read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), non-volatile RAM, and the like.
The use of portable computer and electronic devices has greatly increased demand for memory devices. Digital cameras, digital audio players, personal digital assistants, and the like, generally seek to employ large capacity memory devices (e.g., flash memory, smart media, compact flash, . . . ). The increased demand for information storage can be commensurate with memory devices having an ever-increasing storage capacity (e.g., increase storage per die or chip). For example, a postage-stamp-sized piece of silicon can contain tens of millions of transistors, with each transistor as small as a few hundred nanometers.
The memory cells of a memory device typically can be arranged in a memory array. A memory cell can be placed at each intersecting row and column in the array. Typically, a particular memory cell can be accessed by activating its row and then reading or writing the state of its column. Memory sizes can be defined by the row and column architecture. For example, a 1024 row by 1024 column memory array can define a memory device having one megabit of memory cells. The array rows can be referred to as word lines and the array columns can be referred to as bit lines.
In memory cells, one or more bits of data can be stored in and read from respective memory cells. The erase, program, and read operations to access memory cells and data associated therewith can be commonly performed by application of appropriate voltages to certain terminals of the memory cells. In an erase or write operation the voltages can be applied so as to cause a charge to be removed or stored in a charge storage layer of the memory cell.
The trend in semiconductor memory devices has been toward higher circuit density with higher numbers of bit cells per device, lower operating voltages, and higher access speeds. To achieve these high densities there have been, and continue to be, efforts toward scaling down device dimensions (e.g., at sub-micron levels). However, as the desired scaling down of device dimensions occur, certain undesirable electromagnetic field effects can be increasingly problematic. It is desirable to scale down the size of memory devices while reducing or minimizing certain undesirable electromagnetic field effects and maintaining and/or improving the functionality of such memory devices.