Energy and performance driven circuit design for emerging phase-change memory

Abstract

Phase-Change Random Access Memory (PRAM) has become one of the most promising emerging memory technologies, due to its attractive features such as high density, fast access, non-volatility, and good scalability. The physical characteristics of a PRAM cell mainly depend on the material characteristic and the fabrication process. However, the access device and the operating voltage have significant impact on the PRAM performance, energy dissipation, and lifetime. In this paper, we study the design constraints for PRAM memory array, and propose design optimizations of the access device and the circuit operational voltage. The important features of PRAM memory, such as power consumption, read/write stability, speed, as well as lifetime are all considered as the constrained conditions in the proposed optimizations. Experimental results showed that the proposed methodology can provide a reliable design space for the access device and the operating voltage.