Amplifier and Driver Circuits for Thin Film Memories with 15 Nanoseconds Read Cycle Time
Amplifier and driver circuit design principles for an experimental 4608-bit nondestructive thin film memory with 13.5-nsec read and 60-nsec write cycle times are given. The bit noise problems inherent in the common bit sense line concept are solved by using tunnel diodes in a nonlinear balancing circuit. A further improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio is achieved by employing a noise resistant sense amplifier with nonlinear negative feedback. The word driver described is capable of delivering 700 ma pulse amplitude at 50 mc repetition rate at a pulse width of 7 nsec.
Directional Coupling and its Use for Memory Noise Reduction
The coupling between a bit line and its adjacent sense line in a word-organized memory array is a phenomenon of considerable concern to the memory designer. In many cases, the bit noise induced in the sense line during a WRITE cycle is sufficiently large to saturate and block the sensitive sense amplifier if steps are not taken to minimize the effects of the bit-sense coupling. This Communication presents a method for directing this noise away from the input terminals of the sense amplifier by utilizing the inherently directional properties of the coupling between two parallel transmission lines
Integrating Al with NiO nano honeycomb to realize an energetic material on silicon substrate
Nano energetic materials offer improved performance in energy release, ignition, and mechanical properties compared to their bulk or micro counterparts. In this study, the authors propose an approach to synthesize an Al/NiO based nano energetic material which is fully compatible with a microsystem. A two-dimensional NiO nano honeycomb is first realized by thermal oxidation of a Ni thin film deposited onto a silicon substrate by thermal evaporation. Then the NiO nano honeycomb is integrated with an Al that is deposited by thermal evaporation to realize an Al/NiO based nano energetic material. This approach has several advantages over previous investigations, such as lower ignition temperature, enhanced interfacial contact area, reduced impurities and Al oxidation, tailored dimensions, and easier integration into a microsystem to realize functional devices. The synthesized Al/NiO based nano energetic material is characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry.