Improved charge shared scheme for low-energy match line sensing in ternary content addressable memory

An improved match line (ML) sensing scheme for ternary content addressable memory (TCAM) is presented in this paper. Selective precharge combined with charge sharing technique reduces ML search energy consumption. Use of lower V_t transistors in the sense amplifier allows further reduction of energy. Series gating transistor eliminates energy consumption associated with increased leakage of lower V_t MOSFETs. Simulations are performed using 180 nm 1.8 V CMOS logic in HSPICE. For similar search speed, the proposed scheme shows minimum 24% and 35% energy reductions compared to two existing similar sensing schemes.