Design and analysis of a novel quantum-MOS sense amplifier circuit

Author

Uemura, Tetsuya ; Mazumder, Pinaki

Author_Institution

Fundamental Res. Labs., NEC Corp., Ibaraki, Japan

fYear

1999

fDate

4-6 Mar 1999

Firstpage

158

Lastpage

161

Abstract

A novel quantum-MOS sense amplifier circuit consisting of resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) as pull-up devices and NMOS transistors is discussed in this paper. Compared to the conventional sense amplifier circuits using CMOS technology, the proposed QMOS sense amplifier exhibits about 20% higher sensing speed. The cross-coupled QMOS latch, which is at the heart of the sense amplifier circuit, has metastable and unstable states which are closely related to the I-V characteristics of the RTDs. The stability analysis has been made by using phase-plot diagram and determining how RTD parameters relate to circuit speed. Robustness of the sense amplifier has been discussed

Keywords

DRAM chips; MOS memory circuits; VLSI; circuit stability; integrated circuit design; resonant tunnelling diodes; DRAM chips; I-V characteristics; NMOS transistor; VLSI; circuit speed; cross-coupled QMOS latch; metastable states; phase-plot diagram; pull-up devices; quantum-MOS sense amplifier circuit; resonant tunneling diodes; sensing speed; stability analysis; unstable states; CMOS technology; Diodes; Heart; Latches; MOSFETs; Metastasis; RLC circuits; Resonant tunneling devices; Robustness; Stability analysis;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

VLSI, 1999. Proceedings. Ninth Great Lakes Symposium on

Conference_Location

Ypsilanti, MI

ISSN

1066-1395

Print_ISBN

0-7695-0104-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/GLSV.1999.757400

Filename

757400