Design and performance evaluation of a low-power data-line SRAM sense amplifier

The SRAM which functions as the cache for system-on-chip is vital in the electronic industry. The heavy bit-and data-line capacitances are the major road blocks to its performance. A high-performance SRAM is proposed using a 1.8 V/0.18 µm CMOS standard process from Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd (CHRT). It incorporates a discharging mechanism that helps eliminating the waiting time during the read operation, hence offering a faster sensing speed and lower power consumption. Our post-layout simulation results have shown that it improves the sensing speed and power consumption by 51.4%, and 62.47%, respectively when compared with the best published design. The total Power-Delay-Product (PDP) is 81.79% better. Furthermore, it can operate at a supply voltage as low as 0.8 V with a high stability to the bit-line capacitances variation and mismatch.