A 0.1-$\mu{\hbox {m}}$ 1.8-V 256-Mb Phase-Change Random Access Memory (PRAM) With 66-MHz Synchronous Burst-Read Operation

Abstract

A 256-Mb phase-change random access memory has been developed, featuring 66-MHz synchronous burst-read operation. Using a charge pump system, write performance was characterized at a low supply voltage of 1.8 V. Measured initial read access time and burst-read access time are 62 and 10 ns, respectively. The write throughput was 0.5 MB/s with internal times2 write and can be increased to ~2.67 MB/s with times16 write. Endurance and retention characteristics are measured to be 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">7</sup> cycles and ten years at 99 degC