W-2W Current Steering DAC for Programming Phase Change Memory

This paper presents the design and experimental results of W-2W current mirror binary-weighted current steering digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and its application for programming phase change memory (PCM). This new approach significantly reduces the layout area of current-mode DACs by the virtue of its compact size. The proposed DAC can replace the write driver circuits in phase change memories. Both 6-bit and 12-bit DACs have been fabricated in 0.5 mum CMOS technology. The layout size of the 12-bit and the 6-bit DACs is 0.09 mm
²
and 0.04 mm
²
respectively. Experimental results are presented and the limitations are discussed.