US Patent 7729157 Semiconductor storage device

A memory cell array has memory cells, each of which has a ferroelectric capacitor and a selection transistor. A plate line is connected to one end of the ferroelectric capacitor and applied a certain plate line voltage. A sense amplifier circuit senses and amplifies voltage of the bit line. An error correction circuit corrects any error in retained data in the memory cells sensed by the sense amplifier. A plate line control circuit controls the timing for switching a potential of the plate line to a ground potential, based on absence or presence of error correction by the error correction circuit.