Utility of high on-off ratio, high off resistance rewritable device to EEPROM for ultra-low voltage operation of steep subthreshold slope FETs

This paper proposes the utility of the solid-electrode nanometer switch device called atom switch for ultra-low voltage EEPROM of near- or sub-60mV/dec. steep subthreshold slope transistors. We adopt combination of a simple inverter-sensing read circuit and the atom switch device. This circuit does not include sense amplifiers and not limited by operation limit of analog circuits. High on-off ratio and off resistance enable low-voltage operation with a simple inverter-sensing structure. We fabricated a TEG wafer in a 65nm process, and obtained measurement results of circuit operation in 350mV including the level shifter of memory cell selector driver and in 150mV with the read circuit only.