Design of Matchline Sense Amplifiers for FinFET-Based Ternary Content-Addressable Memory（TCAM）

• Main Authors: Liu, Siao-Siang, 劉曉祥
• Other Authors: Chang, Meng-Chou
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/99784352426715471019

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 電子工程學系 === 104 === Content-addressable memory (CAM) compares input search data in parallel against a table of stored data, and returns the address of the matching data. CAMs can be used in a wide variety of applications requiring high-speed parallel search. These applications include pattern recognition, data compression, and network address translation. The parallel search operation of CAM consumes a significant amount of energy due to the charging and discharging of the search lines and match lines with large capacitance. As the feature size continues to shrink and the corresponding transistor density increases, the planar MOSFET suffer from the increased subthershold and gate leakage currents. FinFET is considered as one of the best substitutes for planar MOSFET technology in the sub-20 nm regime. This thesis proposed two new sensing techniques for low power Ternary Content-Addressable Memory (TCAM). Matchline-Accelerating Sense Amplifiers (MLA-SA) using pulse current to reduce the power consumption of Matchlien in TCAM and employs the feedback network to boost the search speed of TCAM. We proposed a second Matchline sensing technique call “Matchline-Accelerating Low-Power sense amplifiers (MLA-LP-SA) “. MLA-LP-SA using the pulse current to charge the Matchlines and then detects the voltage development on Matchlines to determine whether the Matchline is matched. In contrast to conventional MLSAs, which adjust the charging current to the match lines based on matching result, MLA-LP-SA will not provide additional current to the match lines regardless of the matching result. We have employed Hspice to evaluate various Matchline sensing circuits using the Berkeley Short-channel IGFET Model (BSIM) common multi-gate (CMG) FinFETs with supply voltage of 0.6V and temperature of 25℃. The simulation results show that the proposed MLA-SA can reduce the energy consumption by 39%-65% and 25%-44% compared to the conventional Precharge MLSA and Current-Race MLSA. The proposed MLA-LP-SA can reduce the energy consumption by 66%-73% and 54%-63%, compared to the conventional Precharge MLSA and Current-Race MLSA. MLA-SA and MLA-LP-SA, respectively, can achieve a search time of 150.2 ps and 89.6 ps, and Energy-delay product of 0.775×10-27JS and 0.372×10-27JS, for conventional Precharge MLSA and Current-Race MLSA decreased by 64.38%, 51.65% and 82.9%, 76.79%. Keywords: Content-addressable memory, FinFET devices, Matchline Sense Amplifiers