A Multi-Driver Write Scheme for Reliable and Energy Efficient 1S1R ReRAM Crossbar Arrays

Sherif Amer1 and Garrett Rose2
1University of Tennessee, 2The University of Tennessee


Abstract

This work proposes a reliable and an energy efficient Multi-Driver write scheme for 1S1R ReRAM crossbar arrays. The IR drop induced by the line resistance results in a significant degradation of the delivered voltage across the selected cell. This degradation hampers the write window and may cause write disturbance. It also increases the write latency resulting in increased energy consumption of the crossbar array. To this end, the Multi-Driver write scheme, proposed in this work, improves the voltage delivered across the selected cell via reducing the effective line resistance. This enhancement in voltage delivery improves the write margin. In addition, it allows for reducing the write voltage that reduces both write disturbance and energy consumption of the crossbar array. It is shown that for large crossbar arrays, Multi-Driver write scheme outperforms the conventional write approach while its gains are suppressed for small crossbar arrays.