A fast-read, high-stability 12T hybrid TFET-FinFET SRAM cell with reduced control overhead and enhanced layout efficiency
S. Arman Sabaghpour, Behzad Ebrahimi, Pooya TorkzadehPurpose
Prior 12T hybrid SRAM cells offer high stability but introduce practical limitations like high control overhead and complex layouts, hindering large-array integration. This paper aims to propose a novel 12T topology overcoming these VLSI challenges while delivering exceptionally fast read operations.
Design/methodology/approach
A novel 12T hybrid tunnel field-effect transistor (TFET)-fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) SRAM is proposed. Unlike prior work focused on N-TFET pull-down paths, it introduces an innovative stacked four-PTFET pull-up network. The cell is validated using 20 nm InAs TFET and predictive technology model for multi-gate FinFET in simulation.
Findings
The architecture eliminates column-based write-assist signals, significantly reduced control complexity, while stacked PTFETs enable area-efficient device overlapping. Leveraging FinFETs in a decoupled read path, the cell achieves an exceptional 24 ps read latency at 0.6 V – outperforming 8T_S and HF_10T cells by approximately 130× and approximately 20×, respectively. Additionally, it secures the highest HSNM and RSNM among evaluated topologies (11% RSNM gain over recent 12T designs) and reduces leakage power by three orders of magnitude compared to the reference O_7T cell by effectively eliminating TFET reverse-bias currents.
Originality/value
This work presents the first hybrid 12T topology that resolves critical control-overhead and layout limitations while simultaneously shattering the read-speed bottleneck of TFET-based memories.