Memory Delay Line BTI Stress Mitigation via Pipeline Toggling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Memory devices experience degradation due to bias temperature instability (BTI) stress during power saving modes, where transistors in delay lines remain inactive for extended periods, leading to charge accumulation and device degradation, as direct toggling of delay lines is not feasible without interrupting incoming commands.
Innovation Solution
Injecting a forced BTI toggling signal into the pipeline upstream of the delay lines to toggle the delay lines when no valid commands are detected, allowing the pipeline to receive incoming commands while mitigating BTI stress, with the toggling frequency lower than the external clock to minimize power consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If the memory device enters power saving mode to conserve energy, then power consumption is reduced, but transistors in delay lines experience BTI stress due to lack of activity
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by detecting when the delay line is not busy before injecting the BTI toggle signal. This ensures that the toggling action is only applied when it will not interfere with command processing, thus preventing transistor degradation during power saving mode without affecting normal operation
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies periodic action by injecting BTI toggle signals at specific intervals when the delay line is idle. The periodic injection of toggle signals during power saving mode maintains transistor activity without requiring continuous operation, thus mitigating BTI stress while conserving power
2Reliability
If BTI toggle signals are injected into the delay line to mitigate stress, then transistor degradation is reduced, but command processing may be interrupted
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies dynamics by making the BTI toggle signal injection conditional and adaptive. The toggle signal is injected only when the delay line is detected to be not busy, creating a dynamic system that adapts its behavior based on the current operational state, thus preventing both transistor degradation and command processing interruption
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements self-service by using the busy signal from the delay line itself to control the injection of BTI toggle signals. The delay line's own status information is used to determine when toggling is safe, eliminating the need for external control logic that could interfere with command processing
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for injecting a toggling signal in a command pipeline configured to receive a multiple command types for the memory device. Toggling circuitry is configured to inject the toggling signal into at least a portion of the command pipeline when the memory device is in a power saving mode and the command pipeline is clear of valid commands. The toggling is blocked from causing writes by disabling a data strobe when a command that is invalid in the power saving mode is asserted during the power saving mode.