Design Space Exploration for Threshold Switch Assisted Memristive Memory

Here we present a variation-aware design space analysis for threshold switch (TS) assisted memristive memory. TS is augmented in series with the standard one-transistor one-resistor (1T1R) cell structure of memristive memory, improving the read performance. The selective phase transitions in TS lead to an enhanced distinguishability between the stored data and lower power consumption during the read operation. Compared to the standard 1T1R cell, TS-augmented design achieves (for the nominal condition) 275% increase in read current ratio, 19% reduction in average read power, better read disturb margin, and 4% reduction in average write power at the cost of 75% increase in write ‘0’ delay and 50% increase in write energy. Here, we thoroughly explore the design space to show that the proper co-design of the components can further improve the proposed design. Our analyses will enable the proper choice of material and device parameters of the memristor and TS to utilize the full potential of the proposed design. We also explore the impacts of process variation through 10000-point
$3\sigma$
Monte-Carlo analysis.