A low-power 256-Mb SDRAM with an on-chip thermometer and biased reference line sensing scheme

Autor: Jung Pill Kim, Woodward Yang, Han-Yuan Tan
Rok vydání: 2003
Předmět:
Zdroj: IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. 38:329-337
ISSN: 0018-9200
DOI: 10.1109/jssc.2002.807170
Popis: In order to achieve small self-refresh current (ICC/sub 6/), the first 256-Mb SDRAM with an on-chip thermometer in the DRAM industry is implemented with a new self-refresh scheme. In addition, the biased reference line (BRL) sensing scheme improving refresh characteristics is proposed to increase refresh period and reduce ICC/sub 6/. The on-chip thermometer is characterized by a small area of 0.43 mm/sup 2/, low power consumption with less than 1-/spl mu/A average current, and good accuracy of 5.85/spl deg/C in the worst case. Good accuracy is achieved by incorporating many generic design techniques, including offset-free operational amplifiers and the chopping method, and small area is achieved by applying DRAM cell technology to integrating analog-digital converter. A 75% reduction in ICC/sub 6/ at 60/spl deg/C is achieved with on-chip thermometer and BRL sensing scheme improving 30% of refresh characteristic.
Databáze: OpenAIRE