A 0.11pJ/bit read energy embedded NanoBridge non-volatile memory and its integration in a 28 nm 32 bit RISC-V microcontroller units

Abstract

A 28 nm 512 Kb NanoBridge (NB) non-volatile memory is developed for an energy-efficient microcontroller unit. 0.11 pJ/bit read energy is achieved by utilizing an inverter sense scheme thanks to large ON/OFF conductance ratio of a split-electrode NB. The read energy is 71% and 54% less than those of a ReRAM and a silicon oxide nitride oxide silicon commercial embedded NOR flash at the same technology node, respectively. Moreover, a 28 nm 32 bit RISC-V microcontroller unit embedded with a 2 Mb NB non-voltage memory is fabricated and achieves 80 MHz operation frequency.