TY - GEN
T1 - Performance of a resistance-to-voltage read circuit for sensing magnetic tunnel junctions
AU - Hall, Michael J.
AU - Gruev, Viktor
AU - Chamberlain, Roger D.
PY - 2012/10/16
Y1 - 2012/10/16
N2 - Magnetic tunnel junction devices represent state in the form of a magnetic field that is accessed as a resistance. Read circuits are needed to sense this state and to produce a digital logic voltage output. We designed a resistance-to-voltage read circuit for this purpose. This paper presents area, transient response, power, and jitter characterizations in a 3M2P 0.5 μm process and compares these results to a second implementation in a 5M1P 0.18 μm process. As the process scales down to smaller dimensions, area decreases, rise/fall times decrease, propagation times decrease, maximum frequency increases, power consumption decreases, and jitter decreases. We then evaluate the quality of phase measurements between read circuits for assessing clock skew in systems that use magnetic global clocking. Phase delays above 1.25 ns can be detected and are linear above 2 ns.
AB - Magnetic tunnel junction devices represent state in the form of a magnetic field that is accessed as a resistance. Read circuits are needed to sense this state and to produce a digital logic voltage output. We designed a resistance-to-voltage read circuit for this purpose. This paper presents area, transient response, power, and jitter characterizations in a 3M2P 0.5 μm process and compares these results to a second implementation in a 5M1P 0.18 μm process. As the process scales down to smaller dimensions, area decreases, rise/fall times decrease, propagation times decrease, maximum frequency increases, power consumption decreases, and jitter decreases. We then evaluate the quality of phase measurements between read circuits for assessing clock skew in systems that use magnetic global clocking. Phase delays above 1.25 ns can be detected and are linear above 2 ns.
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U2 - 10.1109/MWSCAS.2012.6292101
DO - 10.1109/MWSCAS.2012.6292101
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84867302070
SN - 9781467325264
T3 - Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems
SP - 639
EP - 642
BT - 2012 IEEE 55th International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, MWSCAS 2012
T2 - 2012 IEEE 55th International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, MWSCAS 2012
Y2 - 5 August 2012 through 8 August 2012
ER -