Read-out schemes for a CNTFET-based crossbar memory

This paper investigates read-out schemes for a crossbar memory using CNTFET-based elements as cross-points. Two read-out schemes are presented in this paper; the first scheme biases the selected junction and measures the current flowing from the junction toward the ground while the second scheme involves biasing all other unselected bits and/or wordlines. Two figures of merit (the sense voltage on/off ratio and the sense current noise margin) are used to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed schemes for the CNTFET-based crossbar memory. Simulation results show that the CNTFET-based crossbar memory achieves improvements in both sense voltages on/off ratio and noise margin compared to the molecular memory implementation. Therefore, this paper demonstrates that these schemes make the CNTFET-based design a viable candidate for crossbar memory in the nanoscale era. Categories and Subject Descriptors B.7.1 [Integrated Circuits]: Types and Design Styles –Memory technologies General...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: GLVLSI
• Authors: Sheng Lin, Yong-Bin Kim, Fabrizio Lombardi
• Keywords: CNTFET-based Crossbar Memory, Crossbar Memory, GLVLSI 2010, Noise Margin, VLSI