J. Low Power Electron. Appl. 2011, 1(1), 204-218; doi:10.3390/jlpea1010204
Article

A Minimum Leakage Quasi-Static RAM Bitcell

Adam Teman* email, Lidor Pergamentemail, Omer Cohenemail and Alexander Fishemail
Low Power Circuits and Systems Lab (LPC&S), The VLSI Systems Center, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, Be’er Sheva, 84105, Israel
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 25 November 2010; in revised form: 2 May 2011 / Accepted: 3 May 2011 / Published: 16 May 2011
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Topics in Low Power Design - From Circuits to Applications)
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Abstract: As SRAMs continue to grow and comprise larger percentages of the area and power consumption in advanced systems, the need to minimize static currents becomes essential. This brief presents a novel 9T Quasi-Static RAM Bitcell that provides aggressive leakage reduction and high write margins. The quasi-static operation method of this cell, based on internal feedback and leakage ratios, minimizes static power while maintaining sufficient, albeit depleted, noise margins. This paper presents the concept of the novel cell, and discusses the stability of the cell under hold, read and write operations. The cell was implemented in a low-power 40 nm TSMC process, showing as much as a 12× reduction in leakage current at typical conditions, as compared to a standard 6T or 8T bitcell at the same supply voltage. The implemented cell showed full functionality under global and local process variations at nominal and low voltages, as low as 300 mV.
Keywords: CMOS memory integrated circuits; SRAM; leakage suppression; ultra low power; dynamic noise margin

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Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Teman, A.; Pergament, L.; Cohen, O.; Fish, A. A Minimum Leakage Quasi-Static RAM Bitcell. J. Low Power Electron. Appl. 2011, 1, 204-218.

AMA Style

Teman A, Pergament L, Cohen O, Fish A. A Minimum Leakage Quasi-Static RAM Bitcell. Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications. 2011; 1(1):204-218.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Teman, Adam; Pergament, Lidor; Cohen, Omer; Fish, Alexander. 2011. "A Minimum Leakage Quasi-Static RAM Bitcell." J. Low Power Electron. Appl. 1, no. 1: 204-218.

J. Low Power Electron. Appl. EISSN 2079-9268 Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland RSS E-Mail Table of Contents Alert