A 11-Transistor Nanoscale CMOS Memory Cell for Hardening to Soft Errors

Abstract

This paper proposes a new hardening design for an 11 transistors (11T) CMOS memory cell at 32 nm feature size. The proposed hardened memory cell overcomes the problems associated with the previous design by utilizing novel access and refreshing mechanisms. Simulation shows that the data stored in the proposed hardened memory cell does not change even for a transient pulse of more than twice the charge than a conventional memory cell. Moreover it achieves 55% reduction in power delay product compared to the DICE cell (with 12 transistors) providing a significant improvement in soft error tolerance. Simulation results are provided using the predictive technology file for 32 nm feature size in CMOS.