High current efficiency sense amplifier using body-bias control for ultra-low-voltage SRAM

We propose a current latch sense amplifier with a current-reuse technique (CLSA-w/CR). The CLSA-w/CR is capable of high-speed pre-charging with little increase in power dissipation. The CLSA-w/CR controls body bias voltages of pre-charge transistors in a conventional CLSA. Even though a forward body bias control over MOSFETs can achieve high-speed operation of the circuit, it induces large substrate leakage current and increases the power dissipation of the circuit. The CLSA-w/CR we propose, however, can achieve high-speed pre-charging without increasing power dissipation. We evaluated the performance of the CLSA-w/CR using SPICE with a set of 0.35-μm standard CMOS parameters. The pre-charge time decreased by 86.9% and the power dissipation increased by only 8.6% compared to that of a conventional CLSA. The CLSA-w/CR showed high-speed pre-charging with small power overhead.