A Novel Voltage-Gated Spin-Orbit Torque Magnetic Non-Volatile Binary Content-Addressable Memory Cell for High-Reliable Search and Low-Power Write Operation

In this paper, we propose a novel magnetic non-volatile binary content-addressable memory (MNV-BCAM) cell. In this cell, two MTJs in complementary resistive state are used to store 1-bit information and the emerging voltage-gated spin-orbit torque (VGSOT) effect is employed to achieve low-power write operation. As for its search operation, one differential sense amplifier (DSA) is employed, which is envisioned to achieve high reliability and low power consumption. Additionally, by using only one transistor as the critical path between the match-line and GND, the proposed MNV-BCAM cell can achieve fast search operation. Hybrid CMOS/MTJ simulation results of the 144-bit word circuit show that the proposed MNV-BCAM cell can achieve small search error rate of 1%, small search delay of 0.91 ns, low search energy dissipation of 0.5 fJ/bit/search, small write delay of 1.3 ns and energy dissipation of 3.8 fJ/bit.