Design of a 270ps-access 7-transistor/2-magnetic-tunnel-junction cell circuit for a high-speed-search nonvolatile ternary content-addressable memory

A novel 7-transistor/2-magnetic-tunnel-junction (7 T-2MTJ) cell circuit is proposed for a high-speed and compact nonvolatile ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM). Since critical path for switching in the TCAM cell circuit, which determines the performance of the TCAM, is only a single MOS transistor, switching delay of the TCAM word circuit is minimized. As a result, 270 ps of switching delay in 144-bit TCAM word circuit is achieved under a 90 nm CMOS/MTJ technology with magneto-resistance ratio of 100, which is about two times faster than a conventional CMOS-based TCAM.