A current race-based technique with dual feedback for match-line energy reduction in ternary content addressable memory

This paper presents a match line (ML) sensing scheme based on current race (CR) type match line sense amplifier (MLSA). The MLSA uses feedback mechanism twice in order to decrease currents to the mismatched MLs. This reduces the energy consumption and increases voltage margin while maintaining high search speed. Simulation using 130nm 1.2V CMOS logic shows large improvement in voltage margin and ~59% reduction in ML energy consumption compared to conventional CR scheme of similar speed. The proposed technique also shows better performance compared to existing CR-type techniques employing single feedback.