Name
Abstract | ||
|---|---|---|
A gated sense amplifier (GSA) consisting of a low-V-t gated preamplifier (LGA) and a high-V-t sense amplifier (SA) is proposed. The gating scheme of the LGA enables quick amplification of an initial cell signal voltage (nu(S0)) because of its low V-t and prevents the cell signal from degrading due to interference noise between data lines. As for a conventional sense amplifier (CSA), this new type of noise causes sensing error, and the noise-generation mechanism was clarified for the first time by analysis of nu(S0). The high-V-t SA holds the amplified signal and keeps subthreshold current low. Moreover, the gating scheme of the low-V-t MOSFETs in the LGA drives the I/O line quickly. The GSA thus simultaneously achieves fast sensing, low-leakage data holding, and fast I/O driving, even for sub-1-V mid-point sensing. The GSA is promising for future sub-1-V gigabit dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) because of reduced variations in the threshold voltage of MOSFETs; thus, the offset voltage of the LGA is reduced. The effectiveness of the GSA was verified with a 70-nm 512-Mbit DRAM chip. It demonstrated row access time (t(RCD)) of 16.4 ns and read access (t(AA)) of 14.3 ns at array voltage of 0.9 V. |
Year | DOI | Venue |
|---|---|---|
2012 | 10.1587/transele.E95.C.600 | IEICE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRONICS |
Keywords | Field | DocType |
low-voltage DRAM, gated preamplifier, mid-point sensing, variations in threshold voltage | Sense amplifier,Dram,Gigabit,Preamplifier,Input offset voltage,Voltage,Electronic engineering,Subthreshold conduction,Engineering,Threshold voltage,Electrical engineering | Journal |
Volume | Issue | ISSN |
E95C | 4 | 1745-1353 |
Citations | PageRank | References |
0 | 0.34 | 0 |
Authors | ||
5 | ||
Name | Order | Citations | PageRank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Satoru Akiyama | 1 | 0 | 1.35 |
| Riichiro Takemura | 2 | 44 | 26.44 |
| Tomonori Sekiguchi | 3 | 17 | 3.74 |
| Akira Kotabe | 4 | 37 | 9.67 |
| Kiyoo Itoh | 5 | 78 | 23.29 |