An 8T Subthreshold SRAM Cell Utilizing Reverse Short Channel Effect for Write Margin and Read Performance Improvement

We propose a technique for improving write margin and read performance of 8T subthreshold SRAMs by using long channel devices to utilize the pronounced reverse short channel effect. Simulations show that the proposed cell at 0.2 V has a write margin equivalent to a conventional cell at 0.27 V. The Ion-to-Ioff ratio of the read path also improved from 169 to 271 and a 52% speedup for read was achieved. The cell area overhead was 20%.