Integrated CAM-RAM Functionality using Ferroelectric FETs

Abstract

Our work proposes a new Ferroelectric FET (FeFET) based Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) with features of integrated search and read operations (along with write), which we refer to as TCAM-RAM. The proposed memory exploits the unique features of the emerging FeFET technology, such as 3-terminal device design, storage in the gate stack, etc., to achieve the proposed functionality. We also introduce Approximate CAM-RAM, which can quantize the bit vector similarity. All the proposed designs operate without negative voltages. We describe both NAND and NOR variants of CAM design. Our CAM design provides 31% area improvement over the previous FeFET 6T CAM design.