AC sense circuit for Phase Change Memory based crossbar memory

This paper presents a novel sensing technique for Phase Change Memory (PCM) based memory crossbar. The technique aims to reduce consumed and leaked energy in crossbar memory structure by using AC current for sensing, where a low pass filter is utilized and the level of attenuation of the signal indicates the stored state. The proposed sensing scheme was studied in simulation environment and has displayed over 50% reduction of the consumed and leaked read process power compared to standard DC sensing scheme as expected.