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  4. A 128-kbit GC-eDRAM With Negative Boosted Bootstrap Driver for 11.3x Lower-Refresh Frequency at a 2.5% Area Overhead in 28-nm FD-SOI
 
research article

A 128-kbit GC-eDRAM With Negative Boosted Bootstrap Driver for 11.3x Lower-Refresh Frequency at a 2.5% Area Overhead in 28-nm FD-SOI

Yigit, Andac  
•
Casarrubias, Emmanuel Nieto  
•
Giterman, Robert  
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January 1, 2023
Ieee Solid-State Circuits Letters

Gain-cell embedded DRAM (GC-eDRAM) is a high-density logic-compatible alternative to conventional static random-access memory (SRAM) and embedded DRAM (eDRAM). However, GC-eDRAM suffers from a reduced data retention time (DRT) at deeply-scaled process nodes, leading to frequent power-hungry refresh operations. In order to reduce the refresh overhead, GC-eDRAM macros utilize external assist voltages which improve the bitcell write-ability, leading to an enhanced DRT. However, the requirement for external analog supply voltages creates additional overhead and is often impractical in the design of compact systems-on-chip (SoC). This work presents an on-chip write-assist technique implemented with a negative boosted bootstrap driver which generates the required wordline boosting on-chip without external components. The proposed circuitry is integrated compactly inside the GC-eDRAM macro to provide an area-efficient low-power solution which improves the bitcell's write-ability and reduces its refresh requirement. A 128-kbit GC-eDRAM macro utilizing the proposed boosting circuitry has been fabricated in a 28-nm FD-SOI technology, demonstrating an 11.3(X) DRT improvement at only 2.5% area overhead.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1109/LSSC.2022.3232775
Web of Science ID

WOS:000922877100001

Author(s)
Yigit, Andac  
•
Casarrubias, Emmanuel Nieto  
•
Giterman, Robert  
•
Burg, Andreas  
Date Issued

2023-01-01

Publisher

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC

Published in
Ieee Solid-State Circuits Letters
Volume

6

Start page

13

End page

16

Subjects

Computer Science, Hardware & Architecture

•

Engineering, Electrical & Electronic

•

Computer Science

•

Engineering

•

voltage

•

boosting

•

capacitors

•

transistors

•

capacitance

•

random access memory

•

generators

•

bootstrap driver

•

embedded dynamic random-access memory (edram)

•

gain cell (gc)

•

write assist circuitry

•

embedded dram

•

sram

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

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February 27, 2023
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/195114
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