Patent 9431086 was granted and assigned to Winbond on August, 2016 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A memory circuit is provided. The memory circuit includes a memory array, a plurality of word lines and a memory controller. The memory array has a plurality of memory blocks. The memory controller outputs an access instruction and an access address to address the word lines for accessing the memory array, or the memory controller outputs a refresh instruction and a refresh address to address the word lines for refreshing the memory array, wherein the memory controller performs a refresh operation on each of the memory blocks corresponding to each of the word lines at predetermined intervals. The memory controller counts the number of times the access instructions have been output and determines whether that number equals a predetermined value or not. According to the determination result, the memory controller selects an address adjacent to the access address as the refresh address for the next refresh operation.