Lecture 27 Semiconductor Memory: DRAM and Non-Volatile Memory Administrivia
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Lecture 27 Semiconductor Memory: DRAM and Non-Volatile Memory Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 Administrivia l Today: Project phase 3 announcement. l Poster Session Tu 5/8 1-4pm » Location BWRC, 2108 Allston Way l Last lecture on Th 5/3 will cover issues in IC design Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 1 Lectures Last l ROM and SRAM Today l Introducing the project phase III l DRAM and Non-volatile Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 Project Phase III A proposed SRAM cell! w/ Control Circuit Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 2 Tasks l Explain the behavior of the cell in its global contents. Provide transient simulations to illustrate. l Identify weakness of the cell in terms of signal integrity and power dissipation. Quantify your statements. l Propose an implementation that improves power dissipation. Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 Report l Report » Comparison, Selection, Electrical Design » Cell Layout, Timing Waveforms in SRAM, Simulation » Power and Estimation and Proposal for SRAM power reduction l 3 slides on poster, each of which represents one of the tasks of the previous slide » Explanation of cell operation, comparison, design » Cell Operation in SRAM, Waveforms, Simulation » Proposal of improved SRAM implementation (from a power perspective) Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 3 SEMICONDUCTOR MEMORIES Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 3-Transistor DRAM Cell BL1 BL2 WWL WWL RWL RWL X X M3 VDD-VT M2 M1 VDD BL1 CS BL2 VDD-VT DV No constraints on device ratios Reads are non-destructive Value stored at node X when writing a “1” = VWWL-VTn Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 4 3T-DRAM — Layout BL2 BL1 GND RWL M3 M2 WWL M1 Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 1-Transistor DRAM Cell BL WL Write "1" Read "1" WL 1 M C X S GND VDD-VT V BL DD VDD/2 VDD/2 CBL sensing Write: CS is charged or discharged by asserting WL and BL. Read: Charge redistribution takes places between bit line and storage capacitance CS DV= VBL– VPRE = (VBIT– VPRE)------------------------ CS + CBL Voltage swing is small; typically around 250 mV. Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 5 DRAM Cell Observations 1T DRAM requires a sense amplifier for each bit line, due to charge redistribution read-out. DRAM memory cells are single ended in contrast to SRAM cells. The read-out of the 1T DRAM cell is destructive; read and refresh operations are necessary for correct operation. Unlike 3T cell, 1T cell requires presence of an extra capacitance that must be explicitly included in the design. When writing a “1” into a DRAM cell, a threshold voltage is lost. This charge loss can be circumvented by bootstrapping the word lines to a higher value than VDD. Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 1-T DRAM Cell Capacitor Metal word line M1 word line SiO2 poly Field Oxide n+ n+ Inversion layer poly Diffused induced by bit line plate bias Polysilicon Polysilicon plate (a) Cross-section gate (b) Layout Used Polysilicon-Diffusion Capacitance Expensive in Area Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 6 SEM of poly-diffusion capacitor 1T-DRAM Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 Advanced 1T DRAM Cells Word line Capacitor dielectric layer Insulating Layer Cell plate Cell Plate Si Capacitor Insulator Transfer gate Isolation Refilling Poly Storage electrode Storage Node Poly Si Substrate 2nd Field Oxide Trench Cell Stacked-capacitor Cell Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 7 Single-to-Differential Conversion WL BL x Diff. x + S.A. _ cell Vref y y How to make good Vref? Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 Open bitline architecture EQ R L1 L0 R0 R1 L VDD SE BLL BLR ... ... CS CS CS SE CS CS CS dummy dummy cell cell Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 8 DRAM Read Process with Dummy Cell 6.0 ) 4.0 t l o V BL ( V 2.0 BL 5.0 0.0 4.0 WL 0 1 2 3 4 5 ) t t (nsec) l 3.0 SE o V (a) reading a zero ( 2.0 EQ V 6.0 1.0 0.00 1 2 3 4 5 ) t 4.0 l (c) control signals o BL V ( V 2.0 BL 0.00 1 2 3 4 5 t (nsec) (b) reading a one Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 Memory Timing: Definitions Read Cycle READ Read Access Read Access Write Cycle WRITE Write Access Data Valid DATA Data Written Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 9 Memory Timing: Approaches MSB LSB Address Row Address Bus Column Address RAS Address Address Bus Address transition CAS initiates memory operation RAS-CAS timing DRAM Timing SRAM Timing Multiplexed Adressing Self-timed Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 Address Transition Detection VDD DELAY A0 td ATD ATD DELAY A1 td ... DELAY AN-1 td Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 10 DRAM Timing Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 Floating-gate transistor (FAMOS) Floating gate Gate D Source Drain tox G tox S n+ p n+ Substrate (a) Device cross-section (b) Schematic symbol Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 11 Floating-Gate Transistor Programming 20 V 0 V 5 V 20 V 0 V 5 V 10 V® 5 V -5 V -2.5 V S D S D S D Avalanche injection. Removing programming voltage Programming results in leaves charge trapped. higher VT. Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 FLOTOX EEPROM Floating gate Gate I Source Drain 20-30 nm -10 V VGD 10 V + + n Substrate n p 10 nm (a) Flotox transistor (b) Fowler-Nordheim I-V characteristic BL WL VDD (c) EEPROM cell during a read operation Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 12 Flash EEPROM Control gate Floating gate erasure Thin tunneling oxide + n+ source n drain programming p-substrate Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 Cross-sections of NVM cells Flash EPROM Courtesy Intel Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 13 Characteristics of State-of-the-art NVM Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 Sense Amplifiers make DV as small C × DV as possible tp = ---------------- Iav large small Idea: Use Sense Amplifer small transition s.a. input output Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 14 Differential Sensing - SRAM VDD VDD V PC V DD DD y M3 M4 y x M1 M2 x x x BL BL EQ SE M5 SE WLi (b) Doubled-ended Current Mirror Amplifier VDD SRAM cell i y y Diff. x Sense x x x Amp y y D D SE (a) SRAM sensing scheme. (c) Cross-Coupled Amplifier Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 Latch-Based Sense Amplifier EQ BL BL VDD SE SE Initialized in its meta-stable point with EQ Once adequate voltage gap created, sense amp enabled with SE Positive feedback quickly forces output to a stable operating point. Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 15 Single-Ended Cascode Amplifier VDD Vcasc WLC WL Digital Integrated Circuits Interconnect © Prentice Hall 2000 16.