An MTJ‐based non‐volatile flip‐flop for high‐performance SoC

The conventional magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ)‐based non‐volatile D flip‐flop (NVDFF) has a slow D‐Q delay and a tradeoff between its D‐Q delay and its sensing current. In addition, a sufficient write current cannot be obtained with the core device, since two MTJs exist in the write path and a write current degradation problem occurs due to the precharge transistors. The proposed MTJ‐based non‐volatile semidynamic flip‐flop (NVSDFF) has a semidynamic structure that ensures a fast D‐Q delay and separates the sensing circuit from the D‐Q signal path to reduce the sensing current without affecting the D‐Q delay. The proposed NVSDFF also provides a sufficient write current by merely using the core device, since only one MTJ exists in the write path. In addition, the head switch, which is added to remove the write current degradation problem, further reduces the sensing current. Thus, the proposed NVSDFF has a higher read disturbance margin than the previous NVDFF with an IO device. The HSPICE simulation results with the industry‐compatible 45 nm model parameter show that the D‐Q delay in the proposed NVSDFF is 50.5% of that of the previous NVDFF with an IO device, and the sensing current, 32.3%. In the proposed NVSDFF, the read disturbance margin is 15.9% larger than in the previous NVDFF with an IO device, and the area is 17.8% smaller. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.