Trends in low-voltage embedded-RAM technology

Abstract

First, trends in the gate-oxide thickness of MOSFET for DRAM and MPU are discussed to clarify the strong need for low-voltage operation of embedded RAMs. Then, modern peripheral logic circuits for reducing leakage currents, and DRAM/SRAM cells to cope with the ever-decreasing signal charges are described. Finally, needs for developments of subthreshold-current reduction circuits for use in active mode, memory-rich SoC architectures, and gain cells and non-volatile cells are emphasized.