A Highly Integrated Crosspoint Array Using Self-rectifying FTJ for Dual-mode Operations: CAM and PUF

Abstract

This study proposes a self-rectifying ferroelectric tunnel junction (SR-FTJ) crosspoint array which affords dual-mode operation as content-addressable memory (CAM) and physically unclonable function (PUF). The PUF mode operation of the proposed SR-FTJ crosspoint array does not require any temporary transfer of stored CAM data to buffer, which prevents additional area overhead or potential data security threats. Experimental measurements verify the feasibility of the dual-mode operation. Further simulations using the SR-FTJ model reflecting measured characteristics show that the proposed SR-FTJ crosspoint array reduces area by at least 88.1 % up to 97.4 % compared to the previous structures that implement individual CAM and PUF. In addition, the proposed SR-FTJ crosspoint array achieves the lowest search energy (2.05 fJ/search/bit) and the highest randomness (Hamming weight of 0.5000) among the structures.