A Cost-Effective 1T-4MTJ Embedded MRAM Architecture with Voltage Offset Self-Reference Sensing Scheme for IoT Applications

A 1-Transistor 4-Magnetic Tunnel Junction (1T-4MTJ) memory cell has been proposed for field type of Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM). Proposed 1T-4MTJ memory cell array is achieved 44% higher density than that of conventional 1T-1MTJ thanks to the common access transistor structure in a 4-bit memory cell. A self-reference sensing scheme which can read out with write-back in four clock cycles has been also proposed. Furthermore, we add to estimate with considering sense amplifier variation and show 1T-4MTJ cell configuration is the best solution in IoT applications. A 1-Mbit MRAM test chip is designed and fabricated successfully using 130-nm CMOS process. By applying 1T-4MTJ high density cell and partially embedded wordline driver peripheral into the cell array, the 1-Mbit macro size is 4.04 mm(2) which is 35.7% smaller than the conventional one. Measured data shows that the read access is 55 ns at 1.5 V typical supply voltage and 25C. Combining with conventional highspeed 1T-1MTJ caches and proposed high-density 1T-4MTJ user memories is an effective on-chip hierarchical non-volatile memory solution, being implemented for low-power MCUs and SoCs of IoT applications.