AN ULTRA LOW-POWER CURRENT-MODE SENSE AMPLIFIER FOR SRAM APPLICATIONS

Abstract

A novel micro-power current sense amplifier employing a cross-coupled current-mirror configuration is presented. The circuit is designed for low-voltage low-power SRAM applications. Its sensing speed is independent of the bit-line capacitances and is almost insensitive to the data-line capacitances. Extensive post-layout simulation results based on a 1.8 V/0.18 μm CMOS technology from Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. (CHRT) have verified that the new sense amplifier promises a much sought-after power-efficient advantage and a note-worthy power-delay product superiority over the conventional and recently reported sense amplifier circuits. These attributes of the proposed sense amplifier make it judiciously appropriate for use in the contemporary high-complexity regime, which incessantly craves for low-power characteristics.