一种面向可容错应用的低功耗SRAM架构

提出了一种面向可容错应用的低功耗SRAM架构。通过对输入数据进行预编码,提出的SRAM架构实现了以较小的精度损失降低SRAM电路功耗。设计了一种单端的8管SRAM单元。该8管单元采用读缓冲结构,提升了读稳定性。采用打破反馈环技术,提升了写能力。以该8管单元作为存储单元的近似SRAM电路能够在超低压下稳定工作。在40 nm CMOS工艺下对电路进行仿真。结果表明,该8管单元具有良好的稳定性和极低的功耗。因此,以该8管单元作为存储单元的近似SRAM电路具有非常低的功耗。在0.5 V电源电压和相同工作频率下,该近似SRAM电路的功耗比采用传统6管单元的SRAM电路功耗降低了59.86%。     

新型高可靠性低功耗6管SRAM单元设计

提出一种新型的6管SRAM单元结构,该结构采用读/写分开技术,从而很大程度上解决了噪声容限的问题,并且该结构在数据保持状态下,采用漏电流以及正反馈保持数据,从而不需要数据的刷新来维持数据。仿真显示了正确的读/写功能,并且读/写速度和普通6管基本相同,但是比普通6管SRAM单元的读/写功耗下降了39%。     

新型4T SRAM的读辅助电路设计

SoC芯片的很大一部分面积被存储器占据,而静态随机存储器SRAM为主要部分,因此高密度的SRAM研究引起更多重视。随着半导体工艺的不断发展,SRAM存储器的读写性能愈发重要。研究和分析了两种高密度、低功耗、高速的SRAM读辅助电路,即降低字线电压电路和增大供电电压电路。针对存储密度提升的4T SRAM,通过使用读辅助电路,增强了数据读取的稳定性,同时可以保证SRAM的数据写能力。在55 nm CMOS工艺条件下,相对传统6T SRAM,4T存储单元的面积减小20%。仿真结果表明,通过在外围电路中设计辅助电路,4T SRAM的读稳定性改善了134%。     

基于九管存储单元的嵌入式SRAM设计

为了解决深亚微米及纳米尺寸下SRAM设计在可靠性及其他性能方面所面临的挑战,在分析不同存储单元的基础上,提出了一种优化的具有高稳定性的九管存储单元,并采用9管存储阵列,设计了一款高可靠性的512×32位SRAM.基于TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS工艺,对电路进行仿真.实验结果表明:该SRAM在250 MHz工作频率下,存储阵列中数据的读写稳定性高,阵列功耗为7.76 mW,数据读出时间为0.86 ns,电路面积仅比采用传统6管单元增加13.5%.     

一种提高SRAM写能力的自适应负位线电路设计

随着器件尺寸缩小到纳米级,在SRAM生产过程中,工艺偏差变大会导致SRAM单元写能力变差.针对这一问题,提出了一种新型负位线电路,可以提高SRAM单元的写能力,并通过控制时序和下拉管的栅极电压达到自我调节负位线电压,使负电压被控制在一定范围内.本设计采用TSMC 40nm工艺模型对设计的电路进行仿真验证,结果证明,设计的电路可以改善写能力,使SRAM在电压降到0.66V的时候仍能正常工作,并且和传统设计相比,本电路产生的负电压被控制在一个范围内,有利于提高晶体管的使用寿命,改善良率,节省功耗.     

A Low Power SRAM/SOI Memory Cell Design

提出一种改进4管自体偏压结构SRAM/SOI单元. 基于TSUPREM4和MEDICI软件的模拟和结构性能的分析，设计单元结构并选取结构参数. 该结构采用nMOS栅下的含p+埋沟的衬底体电阻代替传统6管CMOS SRAM单元中的pMOS元件，具有面积小、工艺简单的优点. 该结构可以在0.5V的电源电压下正常工作，与6管单元相比，该单元瞬态响应正常，功耗只有6管单元的1/10，满足低压低功耗的要求.     

一种双栅结构抗单粒子翻转加固SRAM存储单元

通过对单粒子效应以及抗单粒子翻转电路加固原理进行分析,提出一种基于双栅MOS结构的具有单粒子翻转加固能力的SRAM存储单元。该单元在实现抗单粒子翻转加固的同时具有快速翻转恢复、快速写入、低静态功耗的特点。基于0.18μm CMOS工艺进行电路仿真,结果显示该加固单元读/写功能正确,翻转阈值大于100 Me V·cm2/mg。可以预测,该电路应用于空间辐射环境下将有较好的稳定性。     

亚65nm静态随机存储器稳定性提高技术

CMOS工艺进入到65nm节点后,工作电压降低,随机掺杂导致阈值电压变化增大,给SRAM的读写稳定性带来挑战。介绍了目前业界最新的主要稳定性提高技术。双电源电压、直流分压、电荷共享和电容耦合通过改变字线或者存储单元电压来提高读写稳定性,这些技术都采用外加读写辅助电路来实现;超6管存储单元通过在传统6管单元上增加晶体管,有效提高了读写稳定性;三维器件FinFET构成的SRAM具有传统器件无法比拟的高速、高稳定性、面积小的特点。对这些技术的优缺点作了分析比较。     

一款采用低电压技术的320mv,6kb的亚阈值10管SRAM

本文提出了一种新型的亚阈值10管SRAM单元,在130nm工艺下,本设计的SRAM容量 为6kb,最低可以工作在320mv的电压下。同时一系列的低电压的技术被运用到本SRAM的 设计中,使其能够工作在亚阈值电压下。反短沟效应和反窄沟效应提升了SRAM性能。新型 的脉冲产生电路产生理想的亚阈值脉冲,使得读操作更稳定。浮动的写位线有效地减小了待 机时的漏电。短的读位线使得读操作速度更快和更低功耗。最终流片后的测量表明这系列技 术在亚阈值区都是非常有效的,SRAM在320mv的电压下,工作频率800KHz,消耗功耗 1.94uw。     

一种低压低功耗SRAM/SOI单元设计

提出一种改进4管自体偏压结构SRAM/SOI单元.基于TSUPREM4和MEDICI软件的模拟和结构性能的分析,设计单元结构并选取结构参数.该结构采用nMOS栅下的含p 埋沟的衬底体电阻代替传统6管CMOSSRAM单元中的pMOS元件,具有面积小、工艺简单的优点.该结构可以在0.5V的电源电压下正常工作,与6管单元相比,该单元瞬态响应正常,功耗只有6管单元的1/10,满足低压低功耗的要求.     

Robust TFET SRAM cell for ultra-low power IoT applications

Design of ultra-low power SRAM with robust operation for Internet of Thing (IoT) sensor node is a new challenge. In this work, a novel 9T TFET based SRAM bit cell is proposed. The analysis and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed cell eliminates read disturb issue and outperforms the state-of-the-art 9T TFET bit cell in terms of static and dynamic write performance. The presented circuit topology incorporates power cut-off and write ‘0’ only technique to enhance the write performance. The proposed cell exhibits 1.15× higher write margin (WM), 25% lower write delay, consumes 73% (57%) lower write (average) energy, 7% smaller standby leakage power measured at V_DD = 0.3 V. The proposed cell also shows significant improvement in the read/write performance as compared with existing 7T and 8T TFET cells. Our proposed cell also eliminates half-select disturb issue to make it suitable for bit-interleaving architecture that is a must for enhanced soft error immunity.     

Analysis of a read disturb-free 9T SRAM cell with bit-interleaving capability

In this work, we proposed a single-ended read disturb-free 9T SRAM cell for bit-interleaving application. A column-aware feedback-cutoff write scheme is employed in the cell to achieve higher write margin and non-intrusive bit-interleaving configuration. And a dynamic read-decoupled assist scheme is utilized by cutting loop to relax the interdependence between stability and read current, resulting in robust read operation and better read performance simultaneously. Moreover, the lower write and leakage energy consumptions are also achieved. We compared area, stability, SNM sensitivity and energy consumption between proposed 9T and standard 6T bit-cells. The write ability of 9T cell is 1.40× higher that of 6T cell at 1.0 V, and 8.16× higher at 0.3 V. The write and leakage energy dissipations are 26% and 13% lower than that of 6T at 1.0 V. In addition, robust read and better process variation tolerance are provided for proposed design with area penalty.     

低电压SRAM测试电路设计与实现

本文基于SMIC 40nm LL CMOS工艺对一款256Kb的低电压8T SRAM芯片进行测试电路设计与实现,重点研究低电压SRAM的故障模型和测试算法,并完成仿真验证与分析。电路主要包括DFT电路和内建自测试电路两部分,前者针对稳定性故障有着良好的覆盖率,后者在传统March C+算法基础上,提出了一种新的测试算法,March-Like算法,该算法能够实现更高的故障覆盖率。仿真结果表明,本文设计的DFT电路能够减小稳定性故障的最小可检测电阻,提高了稳定性故障的测试灵敏度;March-Like算法可以检测到低电压SRAM阵列中的写破坏耦合故障、读破坏耦合故障和写干扰故障。     

Variability-aware 7T SRAM circuit with low leakage high data stability SLEEP mode

The design of nanoscale static random access memory (SRAM) circuits becomes increasingly challenging due to the degraded data stability, weaker write ability, increased leakage power consumption, and exacerbated process parameter variations in each new CMOS technology generation. A new asymmetrically ground-gated seven-transistor (7T) SRAM circuit is proposed for providing a low leakage high data stability SLEEP mode in this paper. With the proposed asymmetrical 7T SRAM cell, the data stability is enhanced by up to 7.03x and 2.32x during read operations and idle status, respectively, as compared to the conventional six-transistor (6T) SRAM cells in a 65 nm CMOS technology. A specialized write assist circuitry is proposed to facilitate the data transfer into the new 7T SRAM cells. The overall electrical quality of a 128-bit×64-bit memory array is enhanced by up to 74.44x and 13.72% with the proposed asymmetrical 7T SRAM cells as compared to conventional 6T and 8T SRAM cells, respectively. Furthermore, the new 7T SRAM cell displays higher data stability as compared to the conventional 6T SRAM cells and wider write voltage margin as compared to the conventional 8T SRAM cells under the influence of both die-to-die and within-die process parameter fluctuations.     

A 220 mV robust read-decoupled partial feedback cutting based low-leakage 9T SRAM for Internet of Things (IoT) applications

In this work, a 9T subthreshold SRAM cell is proposed with the reduced leakage power and improved stability against the PVT variations. The proposed cell employs the read decoupling to improve the read stability, and the partial feedback cutting approach to control the leakage power with improved read/write ability. The incorporated stacking effect further improves the leakage power. The simulated leakage power for the proposed cell is 0.61×, 0.49×, 0.80× and 0.55×, while the read static noise margin (RSNM) is 2.5×, 1×, 1.05× and 0.96×, write static noise margin (WSNM) 0 is 1.5×, 1.8×, 1.68× and 1.9× and WSNM 1 is 0.95×, 1.2×, 1.05×, and 1.2× at 0.4 V when compared with the conventional 6T and state of arts (single ended 6T, PPN based 10T and data aware write assist (DAWA) 12T SRAM architectures) respectively. The minimum supply voltage at which this cell can successfully operate is 220 mV. A 4 Kb memory array has also been simulated using proposed cell and it consumes 0.63×, 0.67× and 0.63× less energy than 6T during read, write 1 and write 0 operations respectively for supply voltage of 0.3 V.     

Stability and leakage characteristics of novel conducting PMOS based 8T SRAM cell

The stability and leakage power of SRAMs have become an important issue with scaling of CMOS technology. This article reports a novel 8-transistor (8T) SRAM cell improving the read and write stability of data storage elements and reducing the leakage current in idle mode. In read operation, the bit-cell keeps the noise-vulnerable data ‘low’ node voltage close to the ground level and thus producing near-ideal voltage transfer characteristics essential for robust read functionality. In write operation, a negative bias on the cell facilitates to change contents of the bit. Unlike the conventional 6T cell, there is no conflicting read and write requirement on sizing the transistors. In standby mode, the built-in stacked device in the 8T cell reduces the leakage current significantly. The 8T SRAM cell implemented in a 130 nm CMOS technology demonstrates 2× higher read stability while bearing 20% better write-ability at 1.2 V typical condition and a reduction by 45% in leakage power consumption compared to the standard 6T cell. Results of the bit-cell architecture were also compared to the dual-port 8T SRAM cell. The stability enhancement and leakage power reduction provided with the proposed cell are confirmed under process, voltage and temperature variations.     

A 45-nm Bulk CMOS Embedded SRAM With Improved Immunity Against Process and Temperature Variations

The variation tolerant assist circuits of an SRAM against process and temperature are proposed. Passive resistances are introduced to the read assist circuit with replica memory transistors to lower the wordline voltage accurately reflecting the process and temperature variations. For the sake of not only enlarging the write margin but also reducing power consumption and speed overhead, the divided dynamic power-line scheme based on a charge sharing is adopted. Test chips of 512-Kb SRAM macros and isolated memory cell TEGs are fabricated using 45-nm bulk CMOS technology. Two types of 6-T SRAM cells, whose sizes were 0.245 mum² and 0.327 mum² were designed and evaluated. From the measurement results, we achieved over 100-mV improvement for static noise margin, and 35 mV for write margin for both SRAM cells at 1.0-V worst condition by using assist circuitry. It enables the wordline level to keep higher voltage at the slowest condition than the typical process condition, which results in 83% improvement of the cell current compared with the conventional assist circuit. Furthermore, the minimum operating voltage in the worst case condition was improved by 170 mV, confirming a high immunity against process and temperature variations with less than 10% area overhead.     

High Performance Process Variations Aware Technique for Sub-threshold 8T-SRAM Cell

The demand of low power high density integrated circuits is increasing in modern battery operated portable systems. Sub-threshold region of MOS transistors is the most desirable region for energy efficient circuit design. The operating ultra-low power supply voltage is the key design constraint with accurate output performance in sub-threshold region. Degrading of the performance metrics in Static random access memory (SRAM) cell with process variation effects are of major concern in sub-threshold region. In this paper, a bootstrapped driver circuit and a bootstrapped driver dynamic body biasing technique is proposed to assist write operation which improves the write-ability of sub-threshold 8T-SRAM cell under process variations. The bootstrapped driver circuit minimizes the write delay of SRAM cell. The bootstrapped driver dynamic body bias increases the output voltage levels by boosting factor therefore increasing in switching threshold voltage of MOS devices during hold and read operation of SRAM latch. The increment in threshold voltage improves the static noise margin and minimizing the process variation effects. Monte-Carlo simulation results with 3 \(\sigma \) Gaussian distributions show the improvements in write delay by 11.25 %, read SNM by 12.20 % and write SNM by 12.57 % in 8T-SRAM cell under process variations at 32 nm bulk CMOS process technology node.