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.     

Multi-level wordline driver for robust SRAM design in nano-scale CMOS technology

In this paper, a multi-level wordline driver scheme is presented to improve 6T-SRAM read and write stability. The proposed wordline driver generates a shaped pulse during the read mode and a boosted wordline during the write mode. During read, the shaped pulse is tuned at nominal voltage for a short period of time, whereas for the remaining access time, the wordline voltage is reduced to save the power consumption of the cell. This shaped wordline pulse results in improved read noise margin without any degradation in access time for small wordline load. The improvement is explained by examining the dynamic and nonlinear behavior of the SRAM cell. Furthermore, during the hold mode, for a short time (depending on the size of boosting capacitance), wordline voltage becomes negative and charges up to zero after a specific time that results in a lower leakage current compared to conventional SRAM. The proposed technique results in at least 2× improvement in read noise margin while it improves write margin by 3× for lower supply voltages than 0.7 V. The leakage power for the proposed SRAM is reduced by 2% while the total power is improved by 3% in the worst case scenario for an SRAM array. The main advantage of the proposed wordline driver is the improvement of dynamic noise margin with less than 2.5% penalty in area. TSMC 65 nm technology models are used for simulations.     

A robust and low-power near-threshold SRAM in 10-nm FinFET technology

This paper presents a robust and low-power single-ended robust 11T near-threshold SRAM cell in 10-nm FinFET technology. The proposed cell eliminates write disturbance and enhances write performance by disconnecting the path between cross-coupled inverters during the write operation. FinFETs suffer from width quantization, and SRAM performance is highly dependent to transistors sizing. The proposed structure with minimum sized tri-gate FinFETs operates without failure under major process variations. In addition, read disturbance is reduced by isolating the storage nodes during the read operations. To reduce power consumption this cell uses only one bit-line for both read and write operations. The proposed SRAM cell reduces write delay, average power and PDP by 20, 78 and 62%, respectively as compared to the 9T single-ended SRAM cell. Moreover, the proposed cell enhances write static noise margin by 33% under process variation.     

An Ultra-Low-Power 9T SRAM Cell Based on Threshold Voltage Techniques

This paper presents a new nine-transistor (9T) SRAM cell operating in the subthreshold region. In the proposed 9T SRAM cell, a suitable read operation is provided by suppressing the drain-induced barrier lowering effect and controlling the body–source voltage dynamically. Proper usage of low-threshold voltage (L-\(V_{\mathrm{t}}\)) transistors in the proposed design helps to reduce the read access time and enhance the reliability in the subthreshold region. In the proposed cell, a common bit-line is used in the read and write operations. This design leads to a larger write margin without using extra circuits. The simulation results at 90 nm CMOS technology demonstrate a qualified performance of the proposed SRAM cell in terms of power dissipation, power–delay product, write margin, read access time and sensitivity to process, voltage and temperature variations as compared to the other most efficient low-voltage SRAM cells previously presented in the literature.     

A boosted negative bit-line SRAM with write-assisted cell in 45 nm CMOS technology

A new 11 T SRAM cell with write-assist is proposed to improve operation at low supply voltage.In this technique,a negative bit-line voltage is applied to one of the write bit-lines,while a boosted voltage is applied to the other write bit-line where transmission gate access is used in proposed 11 T cell.Supply voltage to one of the inverters is interrupted to weaken the feedback.Improved write feature is attributed to strengthened write access devices and weakened feedback loop of cell at the same time.Amount of boosting required for write performance improvement is also reduced due to feedback weakening,solving the persistent problem of half-selected cells and reliability reduction of access devices with the other suggested boosted and negative bit-line techniques.The proposed design improves write time by 79％,63％ and slower by 52％ with respect to LP 10 T,WRE 8 T and 6 Tcells respectively.It is found that write margin for the proposed cell is improved by about 4×,2.4× and 5.37× compared to WRE8 T,LP10 T and 6 T respectively.The proposed cell with boosted negative bit line (BNBL) provides 47％,31％,and 68.4％ improvement in write margin with respect to no write-assist,negative bit line (NBL) and boosted bit line (BBL) write-assist respectively.Also,new sensing circuit with replica bit-line is proposed to give a more precise timing of applying boosted voltages for improved results.All simulations are done on TSMC 45 nm CMOS technology.     

A new asymmetric 6T SRAM cell with a write assist technique in 65 nm CMOS technology

A new asymmetric 6T-SRAM cell design is presented for low-voltage low-power operation under process variations. The write margin of the proposed cell is improved by the use of a new write-assist technique. Simulation results in 65 nm technology show that the proposed cell achieves the same RSNM as the asymmetric 5T-SRAM cell and 77% higher RSNM than the standard 6T-SRAM cell while it is able to perform write operation without any write assist at V_DD=1 V. Monte Carlo simulations for an 8 Kb SRAM (256×32) array indicate that the scalability of operating supply voltage of the proposed cell can be improved by 10% and 21% compared to asymmetric 5T- and standard 6T-SRAM cells; 21% and 53% lower leakage power consumption, respectively. The proposed 6T-SRAM cell design achieves 9% and 19% lower cell area overhead compared with asymmetric 5T- and standard 6T-SRAM cells, respectively. Considering the area overhead for the write assist, replica column and the replica column driver of 2.6%, the overall area reduction in die area is 6.3% and 16.3% as compared with array designs with asymmetric 5T- and standard 6T-SRAM cells.     

Low standby leakage 12T SRAM cell characterisation

In this work, a low power and variability-aware static random access memory (SRAM) architecture based on a twelve-transistor (12T) cell is proposed. This cell obtains low static power dissipation due to a parallel global latch (G-latch) and storage latch (S-latch), along with a global wordline (GWL), which offer a high cell ratio and pull-up ratio for reliable read and write operations and a low cell ratio and pull-up ratio during idle mode to reduce the standby power dissipation. In the idle state, only the S-latch stores bits, while the G-latch is isolated from the S-latch and the GWL is deactivated. The leakage power consumption of the proposed SRAM cell is thereby reduced by 38.7% compared to that of the conventional six-transistor (6T) SRAM cell. This paper evaluates the impact of the chip supply voltage and surrounding temperature variations on the standby leakage power and observes considerable improvement in the power dissipation. The read/write access delay, read static noise margin (SNM) and write SNM were evaluated, and the results were compared with those of the standard 6T SRAM cell. The proposed cell, when compared with the existing cell using the Monte Carlo method, shows an appreciable improvement in the standby power dissipation and layout area.     

Standby/active mode logic for sub-1-V operating ULSI memory

New gate logics, standby/active mode logic I and II, for future 1 Gb/4 Gb DRAMs and battery operated memories are proposed. The circuits realize sub-l-V supply voltage operation with a small 1-μA standby subthreshold leakage current, by allowing 1 mA leakage in the active cycle. Logic I is composed of logic gates using dual threshold voltage (Vt) transistors, and it can achieve low standby leakage by adopting high Vt transistors only to transistors which cause a standby leakage current. Logic II uses dual supply voltage lines, and reduces the standby leakage by controlling the supply voltage of transistors dissipating a standby leakage current. The gate delay of logic I is reduced by 30-37% at the supply voltage of 1.5-1.0 V, and the gate delay of logic II is reduced by 40-85% at the supply voltage of 1.5-0.8 V, as compared to that of the conventional CMOS logic     

Cell-plate-line/bit-line complementary sensing (CBCS) architecturefor ultra low-power DRAMs

In the realization of gigabit scale DRAMs, one of the most serious problems is how to reduce the array power consumption without degradation of the operating margin and other characteristics. This paper proposes a new array architecture called cell-plate-line/bit-line complementary sensing (CBCS) architecture which realizes drastic array power reduction for both read/write operations and refresh operations, and develops a large readout voltage difference on the bit-line and cell-plate-line. For read/write operations, the array power reduces to only 0.2%, and for refresh operations becomes 36%, This architecture requires no unique process technology and no additional chip area. Using a test device with a 64-Mb DRAM process, the basic operation has been successfully demonstrated. This new memory core design realizes a high-density DRAM suitable for the 1-Gb level and beyond with power consumption significantly reduced     

A low standby-power fast carbon nanotube ternary SRAM cell with improved stability

Power dissipation,speed and stability are the most important parameters for multiple-valued SRAM design.To reduce the power consumption and further improve the performance of the ternary SRAM cell,we propose a low standby-power fast ternary SRAM cell based on carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNFETs).The performance is simulated in terms of three criteria including standby-power,delay (write and read) and stability (RSNM).Compared to the novel ternary SRAM cell,our results show that the average standby-power,write and read delay of the proposed cell are reduced by 78.1％,39.6％ and 58.2％,respectively.In addition,the RSNM under process variations is 2.01 × and 1.95× of the conventional and novel ternary SRAM cells,respectively.     

45nm工艺下8管双阈值SRAM单元的研究

比较分析了8管SRAM单元在不同双阈值组合情形下的性能,为不同需求的设计者提供了在静态噪声容限(SNM)、漏功耗和延迟之间做出合理权衡的参考。仿真结果表明,组合C8具有最大的SNM,高阈值晶体管Mnl可以有效抑制漏电流。最后,分析了不同组合下的读写延迟时间,并给出了延迟差异的原因。     

A bitline leakage compensation scheme for low-voltage SRAMs

A bitline leakage current of an SRAM, induced by leakage current of the transmission transistors in the cells that are associated with the bitline, increases as the threshold voltage (V_TH) of the transistors is reduced for high performance at low power-supply voltage (V_DD). The increased bitline leakage causes slow or incorrect read/write operation of an SRAM because the leakage current acts as noise current for a sense amplifier. In this paper, the problem has been solved from a circuitry point of view, and the scheme which detects the bitline leakage current in a precharge cycle and compensates for it during a read/write cycle is proposed. Employing this scheme, the SRAM with 360-μA bitline leakage current can perform a read/write operation at the same speed as one that has no bitline leakage current. This enables a 0.1-V reduction in V_TH, and keeps the V_TH and delay scalability of a high-performance SRAM in technology progress. An experimental 8-Kb SRAM with 256 rows is fabricated in a 0.25-μm CMOS technology, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the scheme     

Development of 3T eDRAM gain cells for enhancing read margin and data retention

This paper presents three transistors (3T) based Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) cell in which noise, static power, and data retention voltage (DRV) have been reduced. The spesified parameters in the proposed eDRAM gain cell were improved by connecting the source of storage device to the read word line signal instead of supply voltage. As we all know, power consumption plays a vital role in VLSI design and thus, it is enumerated among the top challenges for the semiconductor chip industries. With the intention to maintain the performance of write operation, we diminish DRV and increase the read margin of eDRAM cell with our designed circuit which is introduced as “A Boosted 3T eDRAM gain cell”. It is a kind of eDRAM cell that utilizes a read word line (RWL) via three PMOS transistors instead of NMOS transistors. PMOS devices are preferred as they have radically less gate leakage current, which confer better results for data retention and thus, boost up the read margin of the cell. Simulation results have been obtained by using Cadence Virtuoso Tool at 45 nm technology for the proposed model. Based on simulation results we can conclude that the parameters of the proposed eDRAM gain cell essentially improved as compared with convertional eDRAM gain cell and the achieved parameters are as follows: static power is 0.767 pW, DRV is 142.009 mV and noise is 8.421 nV/Hz^1/2.     

A forward body-biased low-leakage SRAM cache: device, circuit and architecture considerations

This paper presents a forward body-biasing (FBB) technique for active and standby leakage power reduction in cache memories. Unlike previous low-leakage SRAM approaches, we include device level optimization into the design. We utilize super high Vt (threshold voltage) devices to suppress the cache leakage power, while dynamically FBB only the selected SRAM cells for fast operation. In order to build a super high Vt device, the two-dimensional (2-D) halo doping profile was optimized considering various nanoscale leakage mechanisms. The transition latency and energy overhead associated with FBB was minimized by waking up the SRAM cells ahead of the access and exploiting the general cache access pattern. The combined device-circuit-architecture level techniques offer 64% total leakage reduction and 7.3% improvement in bit line delay compared to a previous state-of-the-art low-leakage SRAM technique. Static noise margin of the proposed SRAM cell is comparable to conventional SRAM cells.     

A 0.25-/spl mu/m 3.0-V 1T1C 32-Mb nonvolatile ferroelectric RAM with address transition detector and current forcing latch sense amplifier scheme

Nonvolatile 32-Mb ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) with-a 0.25-/spl mu/m design rule was developed by using an address transition detector (ATD) control scheme for the application to SRAM and applying a common plate folded bit-line cell scheme with current forcing latch sense amplifier (CFLSA) for increasing sensing margin, and adopting a dual bit-line reference voltage generator (DBRVG) for high noise immunity. Compared to a conventional FRAM device, the total chip size is reduced by 10.87%, which was achieved by using a single section data line (SSDL) and removing large gate-oxide capacitors, which is typically used for reference voltage generator for 1T1C FRAM. Furthermore, the imbalance of reference bit-line capacitance and main bit-line capacitance was resolved by using the CFLSA technique.     

A 0.2 V, 480 kb Subthreshold SRAM With 1 k Cells Per Bitline for Ultra-Low-Voltage Computing

A 2 muW, 100 kHz, 480 kb subthreshold SRAM operating at 0.2 V is demonstrated in a 130 nm CMOS process. A 10-T SRAM cell allows 1 k cells per bitline by eliminating the data-dependent bitline leakage. A virtual ground replica scheme is proposed for logic "0" level tracking and optimal sensing margin in read buffers. Utilizing the strong reverse short channel effect in the subthreshold region improves cell writability and row decoder performance due to the increased current drivability at a longer channel length. The sizing method leads to an equivalent write wordline voltage boost of 70 mV and a delay improvement of 28% in the row decoder compared to the conventional sizing scheme at 0.2 V. A bitline writeback scheme was used to eliminate the pseudo-write problem in unselected columns.     

Design of a single-ended energy efficient data-dependent-write-assist dynamic (DDWAD) SRAM cell for improved stability and reliability

A data-dependent write-assist dynamic (DDWAD) SRAM cell is proposed to reduce the power consumption and enhance the relaibility against process, voltage, temperature variation and aging effect under static stress. The cell has distinct read and write circuits with single bit line for respective operations which improve the read stability. In the cell, write operation is performed using separate write signal WS instead of wordline WL. The write signal WS is introduced to reduce the discharging actvity at the write bit line BL to reduce the dynamic power consumption. The latch property of the cell is disabled during write operation to flip the data faster at the storage nodes. The proposed design approach provides high immunity to the data-dependent bit line leakage and results in lower voltage drop on BL, lower leakage current and lower parasitic capacitance. The proposed cell consumes approximately 60.4 % lower write power and 52.8 % read power compared to the other cells. The storage node does not float during read operation and thus cell is not sensitive to any positive noise. The data in the cell can be maintained even if the power supply is reduced to 300 mV.     

Low-Power High-Performance Asymmetrical Double-Gate Circuits Using Back-Gate-Controlled Wide-Tunable-Range Diode Voltage

This paper presents a new power-reduction scheme using a back-gate-controlled asymmetrical double-gate device with robust data-retention capability for high-performance logic/SRAM power gating or variable/dynamic supply applications. The scheme reduces the transistor count, area, and capacitance in the header/footer device and provides a wide range of virtual ground (GND) or supply voltage. Physical analysis and numerical mix-mode device/circuit-simulation results confirm that the proposed scheme can be applied to low-power high-performance circuit applications in 65-nm technology node and beyond. Variable/dynamic supply or GND voltage using the proposed scheme improves read and write margins in scaled SRAM without degrading read and write performance.     

Novel low-power and stable SRAM cells for sub-threshold operation at 45 nm

In scaled technologies with lower supply voltage, conventional Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) cell suffers from unsuccessful read & write operation due to high off state current in sub-threshold region at nanometre technologies. This work proposes new functional low-power designs of SRAM cells with 7, 8, 9 and 12 transistors which operate at only 0.4V power supply in sub-threshold operation at 45 nm technology. Stability analysis is carried out using static noise margins as well as N-curve cell stability metrics. For performance measurement, read/write access time and leakage power consumption in hold mode are analysed. The comparison with published designs shows that two new proposed designs namely M8T, MPT8T have 30% less leakage power consumption along with 2× read stability, 2× write ability, more than 60% faster read & write operation.     

A Voltage Scalable 0.26 V, 64 kb 8T SRAM With V$_{min}$ Lowering Techniques and Deep Sleep Mode

A voltage scalable 0.26 V, 64 kb 8T SRAM with 512 cells per bitline is implemented in a 130 nm CMOS process. Utilization of the reverse short channel effect in a SRAM cell design improves cell write margin and read performance without the aid of peripheral circuits. A marginal bitline leakage compensation (MBLC) scheme compensates for the bitline leakage current which becomes comparable to a read current at subthreshold supply voltages. The MBLC allows us to lower ${rm V}_{min}$ to 0.26 V and also eliminates the need for precharged read bitlines. A floating read bitline and write bitline scheme reduces the leakage power consumption. A deep sleep mode minimizes the standby leakage power consumption without compromising the hold mode cell stability. Finally, an automatic wordline pulse width control circuit tracks PVT variations and shuts off the bitline leakage current upon completion of a read operation.