DSP, Micros & Memory


Low-power SRAM chips

25 February 2015 DSP, Micros & Memory

Renesas Electronics introduced five new models in the RMLV0816B and RMLV0808B series of Advanced Low-Power SRAM (Advanced LP SRAM), the company’s flagship SRAM (static random access memory) devices. The new devices have a density of 8 Mb and utilise a fine fabrication process technology with a circuit linewidth of 110 nanometres.

In the Advanced LP SRAM Series, the new devices are high-reliability products that achieve the same soft error rate as Renesas’ earlier products that were fabricated in a 150 nm process. They also achieve low power operation with a standby current of 2 μA at 25°C, making them suitable for data storage in battery-backup devices.

Since Renesas has added a capacitor to the memory node in the cell of these devices, they have an extremely high resistance to soft errors. A common method for dealing with soft errors is to correct them using an ECC (error correcting code) circuit embedded in the SRAM or user system. There are, however, limits to such techniques, such as not being able to correct multiple bit errors depending on the performance of the ECC itself.

To deal with this issue, the Renesas Advanced LP SRAM adopts structural measures that suppress soft error occurrence itself. The results of system soft error testing in Renesas' currently mass produced 150 nm process Advanced LP SRAM has shown that these devices are essentially soft error free.

Additionally, the load transistors (p-channel) in the SRAM cell are formed as polysilicon TFT devices, and since they are stacked in the upper layer of the n-channel MOS transistors that are formed on the silicon substrate, only n-channel transistors are formed on the underlying silicon substrate. As a result, there are no parasitic thyristor structures in the memory area and thus these devices have a structure in which latch-up cannot, in principle, occur.

For more information contact Marinus Rudman, Hi-Q Electronics, +27 (0)21 595 1307, [email protected], www.hi-q.co.za



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