Performance evaluation of CNTFET based Dynamic Ternary Content Addressable Memory cell

Abstract

Carbon Nanotube Field-Effect Transistor (CNTFET) with high mobility due to ballistic transport operation and low OFF current capability has proved to be a promising alternate to the conventional CMOS technology. This paper presents a design, performance assessment and comparative analysis for CNTFET based Dynamic Ternary Content Addressable Memory (DTCAM) cell. This cell is capable of storing and searching three logic values: zero (0), one (1), and don't care (X). Hspice simulation results are reported to show that the three memory operations of the proposed CAM cell perform correctly at 0.9 V power supply. It is also shown that the presented memory design achieves a significant improvement in read, write and search delay by 86%, 75% and 51% respectively, with a power increase of 21% only compared to its CMOS counterpart at 32 nm technology.