SRAM Assist Techniques for Operation in a Wide Voltage Range in 28-nm CMOS

TitleSRAM Assist Techniques for Operation in a Wide Voltage Range in 28-nm CMOS
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2012
AuthorsZimmer, B., Toh S. Oon, Vo H., Lee Y., Thomas O., Asanović K., & Nikolic B.
Published inIEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-II
Volume59
Issue12
Page(s)853-857
Other Numbers3458
Abstract

Reducing static random-access memory (SRAM) operationalvoltage (Vmin) can greatly improve energy efficiency,yet SRAM Vmin does not scale with technology due to increasedprocess variability. Assist techniques have been shown to improvethe operation of SRAM, but previous investigations of assist techniquesat design time have either relied on static metrics that donot account for important transient effects or make specific assumptionsabout failure distributions. This paper uses importancesampling of dynamic failure metrics to quantify and analyze theeffect of different assist techniques, array organization, and timingon Vmin at design time. This approach demonstrates that themost effective technique for reducing SRAM Vmin is the negativebitline write assist, resulting in a Vmin of 600 mV for a 28-nm LPprocess in the typical corner.Index Terms—Assist techniques, importance sampling, lowvoltagestatic random-access memory (SRAM), SRAM

URLhttps://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/pubs/arch/ICSI_sramassisttechniques12.pdf
Bibliographic Notes

IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-II, Vol. 59, No. 12, pp. 853-857

Abbreviated Authors

B. Zimmer, S. O. Toh, H. Vo, Y. Lee, O. Thomas, K. Asanovi?, and B. Nikoli?

ICSI Research Group

Architecture

ICSI Publication Type

Article in journal or magazine