A 12-ns low-temperature DRAM

A 12-ns access-time 0.5-Mb CMOS DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) operated at liquid-nitrogen temperatures is discussed. Comprehensive measurements, featuring a low-temperature e-beam tester, focused on circuit concerns particularly relevant to high speed. The results, including the first reported measurements of soft error rate (SER) at low temperatures, show that noise, power, and SER do not preclude very high-speed liquid-nitrogen DRAM operation. >