Magnetic-tunnel-junction based low-energy nonvolatile flip-flop using an area-efficient self-terminated write driver

A nonvolatile flip-flop (NV-FF) that makes it possible to minimize the backup energy before power-off is proposed. The use of a self-terminated write driver with continuous voltage monitoring enables automatic write-current termination to be performed immediately after the desired data are written, resulting in great energy saving. Moreover, by utilizing single-ended circuitry together with a symmetrical write current path structure, both a nonvolatile storage function and self-termination are compactly embedded in the NV-FF without performance degradation. As a result, the backup energy is reduced by 83% compared to that of the average of conventional magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ)-based NV-FFs with no self-termination. It is also demonstrated that total transistor counts are reduced by 43% compared to a conventional MTJ-based NV-FF with self-termination.