Small area ROM design for embedded applications

The compact full custom layout design of a 16 kbit mask-programmable complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) read only memory (ROM) with low power dissipation is introduced. By optimizing storage cell size and peripheral circuit structure, the ROM has a small area of 0.050 mm² with a power-delay product of 0.011 pJ/bit at +1.8 V. The high packing density and the excellent power-delay product have been achieved by using SMIC 0.18 μm 1P6M CMOS technology. A novel and simple sense amplifier/driver structure is presented which restores the signal full swing efficiently and reduces the signal rising time by 2.4 ns, as well as the memory access time. The ROM has a fast access time of 8.6 ns. As a consequence, the layout design not only can be embedded into microprocessor system as its program memory, but also can be fabricated individually as ROM ASIC.