Variability-Aware Design of Multilevel Logic Decoders for Nanoscale Crossbar Memories

Abstract--The fabrication of crossbar memories with sublithographic features is expected to be feasible within several emerging technologies; in all of them, the nanowire (NW) decoder is a critical part since it bridges the sublithographic wires to the outer circuitry that is defined on the lithography scale. In this paper, we evaluate the addressing scheme of the decoder circuit for NW crossbar arrays, based on the existing technological solutions for threshold voltage differentiation of NW devices. This is equivalent to using a multivalued logic addressing scheme. With this approach, it is possible to reduce the decoder size and keep it defect tolerant. We formally define two types of multivalued codes (i.e., hot and reflexive codes), and we estimate their yield under high variability conditions. Multivalued hot decoders yield better area saving than n-ary reflexive codes, and under severe conditions, reflexive codes enable a nonvanishing part of the code space to randomly recover. T...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: TCAD
• Authors: M. Haykel Ben Jamaa, Kirsten E. Moselund, David Atienza, Didier Bouvet, Adrian M. Ionescu, Yusuf Leblebici, Giovanni De Micheli
• Keywords: Crossbar Memories, Decoder Circuit, Decoders, TCAD 2008