A 1R/1W SRAM Cell Design to Keep Cell Current and Area Saving against Simultaneous Read/Write Disturbed Accesses

Hiroyuki YAMAUCHI
Toshikazu SUZUKI
Yoshinobu YAMAGAMI

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E90-C    No.4    pp.749-757
Publication Date: 2007/04/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1353
DOI: 10.1093/ietele/e90-c.4.749
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Low-Power, High-Speed LSIs and Related Technologies)
Category: Memory
Keyword: 
SRAM,  1R/1W-SRAM,  disturbed access,  SNM,  write margin,  cell current,  

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Summary: 
A guarantee obligation of keeping a Static-Noise-Margin (SNM), a Write-Margin (WRTM), and a cell current (Icell) even against a simultaneous Read/Write (R/W) disturbed access at the same column is required for a 1R/1W (1R/1W) SRAM. We have verified that it is difficult for the previously proposed techniques [1]-[5] so far to meet all the requirements simultaneously without any decrease in Icell or any significant area penalty. In order to address this issue, a new cell design technique for the 1R/1W SRAM cell with 8Tr's has been proposed and demonstrated in a 65 nm CMOS technology. It has been shown that Icell in the R/W disturbed column can be increased by 77% and 195% at Vdd=0.9 V and 0.6 V, respectively, and a cell size can be reduced by 15%, compared with the conventional column-based cell power-terminal bias (VDDM) control [1],[2] assuming that the same Icell of 9 µA at Vdd=0.9 V has to be provided. Compared with the conventional scheme, it has been found that the proposed Write-Bit-Line precharge level (VWBL) control and column-based cell source-terminal bias (VSSM) control can provide a 1.45-times larger SNM for Write-Word-Line (WWL) disturbed cells and a 1.7-fold larger WRTM while keeping the same Icell, respectively.