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.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.