g 80 mv to 300 mv than the threshold voltage of other lower threshold voltage transistors such as transistors in memory cell 402 or is such that its leakage current is substantially less e g ten to one hundred times less than the leakage current through other lower threshold voltage transistors such as transistors in memory cell 402 driver 406 is sized larger in order to compensate for the increased gate capacitance of pass nmosfet 408 for other embodiments a negative voltage with respect to ground substrate is applied to the gate terminals of access or pass nmosfets not performing a read operation the application of a negative voltage in this manner may significantly reduce leakage current for example in fig5 voltage generator provides a negative voltage to the gates of access nmosfets 504 when cell 506 is not being read voltage generator may be coupled to a memory controller not shown or to driver 508 so as to provide a negative voltage when cell 506 is not being read and to provide an open circuit very high impedance to word line 510 when a read operation is being performed voltage generator 502 may be combined with driver 508 into a single functional unit the voltage transition of word line 510 when transitioning from a read operation to a no read operation is illustrated in fig6 when in a read operation the voltage of word line 510 is at v cc whereas when transitioning from a read operation to a.