Single-Ended Near Threshold 9T SRAM for Portable Low-Power Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Biomedical applications like body area networks (BAN) necessitate the construction of power optimized SRAMs to enhance the batteries life at BAN nodes. In this work, we have designed a one-sided near-threshold 9TSRAM for low-power portable biomedical applications. The proposed near threshold 9T SRAM (PNT9T SRAM) employs a cross-connected Schmitt trigger (ST) inverter and normal inverter in its cell core. A separate path for reading is also employed to eliminate the reading disturbance. The write disturbance is removed in the PNT9T SRAM by removing the trail from VDD and ground. The write ability is improved with the use of a feedback-cutting approach. The leakage power dissipation of the memory is mitigated by using a tail transistor, virtual ground (VGND). To evaluate the performance, the PNT9T SRAM is compared with conventional 6T (C6T), ST11T, ST9T, TG9T, SBL9T, and SE9T SRAM cells using FinFET 18[Formula: see text]nm technology at 0.6[Formula: see text]V power supply. The PNT9T SRAM mitigates the read power, write power, and leakage power by 51.10%, 50.57%, and 78.97%. Furthermore, the read and write static noise margins were improved by 54% and 39.5%, respectively, compared to C6T SRAM.