Novel low-power and stable memory cell design using hybrid CMOS and MTJ

Memory is an essential component of any VLSI data storage system. Because of the shrinking of CMOS processing nodes, power consumption in conventional memory (SRAM and DRAM) increases. Traditional memory technologies also suffer several additional difficulties, such as limited scalability, low reliability, short data retention time, low durability, increased space, and latency, among others. As a result, new device technologies are critical for developing low-power, high-performance memory devices. Among the numerous developing nonvolatile (NV) memory technologies available today, STT-MRAM is regarded as one of the most appealing and promising NV memory technologies for overcoming the limitations of traditional memories. STT-MRAM is more efficient, quicker, NV, highly scalable, and readily integrated with CMOS technology. Because of the scalability of technology nodes below 45 nm, traditional STT-MRAM cells have several difficulties, including high write power consumption, destructive read and write operation, prolonged write time, and so on. To address the issues associated with the writing operation of STT-MRAM cells, this article presented an optimum STT-MRAM cell design based on PMA-MTJ. The write failure mitigation strategies are utilized to increase the proposed cell's write stability. A comparative analysis between conventional STT-MRAM cell and the proposed cell is performed by concerning the write power consumption, write delay, and write stability. The experimental results indicate the performance superiority of the proposed cell architecture.