An interpolating sense circuit for molecular memory

Abstract

Presented herein is a novel sensing circuit for multistate molecular memory technologies. The circuit employs an interpolating sensing scheme to achieve low power dissipation and high speed sensing of molecular memory cells. A novel "reference level offset reduction" circuit technique is used to reduce the current thresholder's offset to nearly zero. Our interpolating sensing circuit consists of two sense amplifiers and two interpolators. At 2.5 V, the total current for the amplifiers and interpolators is 587 /spl mu/A and 161 /spl mu/A, respectively. The sense circuit exhibits an overall rise time of 41 ns and fall time of 56 ns in TSMC 0.25-/spl mu/m process.