Enhanced read performance for phase change memory using a reference column

Yu Lei; Houpeng Chen; Xi Li; Qian Wang; Qi Zhang; Jiajun Hu; Xiaoyun Li; Zhen Tian; Zhitang Song

doi:10.1587/elex.14.20170032

LETTER

Enhanced read performance for phase change memory using a reference column

Yu Lei, Houpeng Chen, Xi Li, Qian Wang, Qi Zhang, Jiajun Hu, Xiaoyun Li, Zhen Tian, Zhitang Song

Author information

Yu Lei
State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Micro-system and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Houpeng Chen
State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Micro-system and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xi Li
State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Micro-system and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Qian Wang
State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Micro-system and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Qi Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Micro-system and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jiajun Hu
State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Micro-system and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xiaoyun Li
State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Micro-system and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhen Tian
State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Micro-system and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhitang Song
State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Micro-system and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Keywords: phase change memory, read access time, reference current, PCRAM, sense amplifier

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2017 Volume 14 Issue 5 Pages 20170032

DOI https://doi.org/10.1587/elex.14.20170032

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Abstract

A reference column is employed to improve the read performance of phase change memory (PCM). In this way, a changeable reference current replaces the constant one; both the reference cell and the selected cell have the same bit line (BL) parasitic parameters and read transmission gate parasitic parameters in the read operation. Simulated in a 40 nm CMOS process, read access time of 4-Mb PCM is 30.65 ns with 190.9 ns improvement. Monte Carlo simulations show a 80.5 ns worst read access time compared to the conventional 1.58 µs.

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