Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Non-volatile (NV)-content addressable memory (CAM) (NV-CAM) cells employing differential magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) sensing for increased sense margin
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Application No.: US15070621Application Date: 2016-03-15
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Publication No.: US09728259B1Publication Date: 2017-08-08
- Inventor: Seong-Ook Jung , Byung Kyu Song , Taehui Na , Jung Pill Kim , Seung Hyuk Kang
- Applicant: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. , Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, Yonsei University
- Applicant Address: US CA San Diego KR Seoul
- Assignee: QUALCOMM Technologies, Inc.,Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, Yonsei University
- Current Assignee: QUALCOMM Technologies, Inc.,Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, Yonsei University
- Current Assignee Address: US CA San Diego KR Seoul
- Agency: Withrow & Terranova, PLLC
- Main IPC: G11C15/02
- IPC: G11C15/02 ; G11C15/00 ; G11C15/04 ; G11C11/16

Abstract:
Non-volatile (NV)-content addressable memory (CAM) (NV-CAM) cells employing differential magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) sensing for increased sense margin are disclosed. By the NV-CAM cells employing MTJ differential sensing, differential cell voltages can be generated for match and mismatch conditions in response to search operations. The differential cell voltages are amplified to provide a larger match line voltage differential for match and mismatch conditions, thus providing a larger sense margin between match and mismatch conditions. For example, a cross-coupled transistor sense amplifier employing positive feedback may be employed to amplify the differential cell voltages to provide a larger match line voltage differential for match and mismatch conditions. Providing NV-CAM cells that have a larger sense margin can mitigate sensing issues for increased search operation reliability. One non-limiting example of an NV-CAM cell that employs MTJ differential sensing is a ten (10) transistor (10T)-four (4) MTJ (10T-4MTJ) NV-TCAM cell.
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