Low power and robust 8T/10T subthreshold SRAM cells

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel 8T subthreshold SRAM cell for improving the writing “0” characteristics of the conventional 8T cell. In addition, a new 10T subthreshold SRAM cell based on FinFET structures which has a lower standby power is suggested. The characteristics of the proposed and conventional 8T and 10T structures in 32 nm planar bulk and FinFET technologies are compared. The results show that the 10T structures have better write characteristics thanks to the differential write and consume less static power while the 8T structures have higher read currents. Also, they reveal that FinFET based structures show better read and write characteristics while consuming less static power with less variation in the presence of process variations.