A 128-kb FeRAM macro for contact/contactless smart-card microcontrollers

Author

Yamada, Junichi ; Miwa, Tohru ; Koike, Hiroki ; Toyoshima, Hideo ; Amanuma, Kazushi ; Kobayashi, Sota ; Tatsumi, Toru ; Maejima, Yukihiko ; Hada, Hiromitsu ; Mori, Hidemitsu ; Takahashi, Seiichi ; Takeuchi, Hidenori ; Kunio, Takemitsu

Author_Institution

NEC Labs., NEC Corp., Kanagawa, Japan

Volume

37

Issue

8

fYear

2002

fDate

8/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1073

Lastpage

1079

Abstract

This paper describes a 128-kb FeRAM macro for smart-card microcontrollers. This macro, which was designed and fabricated using a 0.35-/spl mu/m three-metal CMOS and a Capacitor-on-Metal/Via-stacked-Plug (CMVP) process technology, is ideally suited for recent system LSIs such as smart-card microcontrollers. It has a flexible memory size ranging from 32 to 128 kb, a low consumption current of 0.3 mA, and endurance of more than 10/sup 8/ write/read cycles under a wide range of supply voltages, from 2.7 to 5.5 V. These characteristics, which are required of not only contact-type smart-card microcontrollers but also contactless-type ones, were achieved by using four newly developed circuit technologies: 1) a three-metal CMVP memory cell; 2) a voltage-regulating architecture; 3) a main/sub bitline and wordline structure; and 4) a dynamic-type offset sense amplifier.

Keywords

CMOS logic circuits; ferroelectric storage; large scale integration; microcontrollers; random-access storage; smart cards; 0.3 mA; 128 kbit; 2.7 to 5.5 V; FRAM macro; capacitor-on-metal/via-stacked-plug process; contact-type microcontrollers; contactless-type microcontroller; dynamic-type offset sense amplifier; ferroelectric capacitor; ferroelectric memory; flexible memory size; low consumption current; smart-card microcontrollers; system LSI; three-metal CMOS process; voltage-regulating architecture; wordline structure; CMOS process; CMOS technology; Ferroelectric films; Ferroelectric materials; Microcontrollers; National electric code; Nonvolatile memory; Random access memory; Voltage; Wiring;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSSC.2002.800930

Filename

1020247