A high-performance microprocessor-compatible small size full CMOS SRAM cell technology for under 1.8-V operation has been developed. Less than 1-µm spacing between the n and pMOSFETs is achieved by using a retrograde well combined with SSS-OSELO technology. To connect the gates of a driver nMOSFET and a load pMOSFET directly, a 0.3-µm n-gate load pMOSFET, formed by amorphous-Si-film through-channel implantation, is merged with a 0.25-µm p-gate pMOSFET for the peripheral circuits. The memory cell area is reduced by using a mask-free contact process for the local interconnect, which includes titanium-nitride wet-etching using a plasma-TEOS silicone-dioxide mask. The newly developed memory cell was demonstrated using 0.25-µm CMOS process technology. A 6.93-µm2 and 1-V operation full CMOS SRAM cell with a high-performance circuit was achieved by a simple fabrication process.

A novel SRAM cell architecture for sub-1-V high-speed operation is proposed operation is proposed that uses neither low-Vth MOSFET's nor modified cell layout patterns. A source-line, connected to the source terminals of the driver MOSFET's is controlled so that it is negative and floating in the read and write cycles, respectively. This improved the bit-line access time by 1/4-1/2 at supply voltages of 0.5-1.0 V. Limiting the bit-line swing reduces by 1/10 the writing power needed to charge them and allows faster write-recovery, as well. The achievability of low-power 100-MHz operation over a wide range of supply voltages is demonstrated.

A 4-Mb CMOS SRAM with 3.84 µm2 TFT load cells is fabricated using 0.25-µm CMOS technology and achieves an address access time of 6 ns at a supply voltage of 2.7 V. The use of a current sense amplifier that is insensitive to its offset voltage enables the fast access time. A boosted cell array architecture allows low voltage operation of fast SRAM's using TFT load cells.

Low-power, high-speed match-detection circuits for a content addressable memory(CAM) are proposed and evaluated. The circuits consist a current supply to a match-line, a differential amplifier, and 9-MOSFET CAM cells. The implementation of these circuits made it possible to realize a 16-entry, 32-bit data-compare CAM TEG of 1.2-ns matchdetection time with 5-mW power dissipation in 10-ns cycle-time.