A Comparative Study of Low-Power Cam Match-Line Sense Amplifier Designs
Becky Elfreda. J and Nandhakumar. A. Article: A Comparative Study of Low-Power Cam Match-Line Sense Amplifier Designs. IJCA Proceedings on International Conference on Innovations In Intelligent Instrumentation, Optimization and Electrical Sciences ICIIIOES(1):7-11, December 2013. Full text available. BibTeX
@article{key:article,
author = {Becky Elfreda. J and Nandhakumar. A},
title = {Article: A Comparative Study of Low-Power Cam Match-Line Sense Amplifier Designs},
journal = {IJCA Proceedings on International Conference on Innovations In Intelligent Instrumentation, Optimization and Electrical Sciences},
year = {2013},
volume = {ICIIIOES},
number = {1},
pages = {7-11},
month = {December},
note = {Full text available}
}
Abstract
Robust, high-performance and low-power match-line sense amplifier designs are urgently required to catch up with the new requirements of large-scale CAMs in nano-scale CMOS technologies. In this paper we evaluate the performance of four state-of-the-art match-line sense amplifier designs in terms of power, delay and robustness against temperature, supply voltage and process variations. Our results show that the pre-charge low match-line sensing schemes suffers from process variations. Despite featuring low power consumption, these designs can hardly be scaled down to operate in low-voltage sub-65 nm CMOS process. On the other hand, the conventional and the charge-injection designs are much more robust and hence more suitable for low-voltage sub-65 nm CMOS implementations.
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