Belief Propagation based Joint Detection and Decoding for Resistive Random Access Memories

TL;DR

This paper introduces a belief propagation based joint detection and decoding scheme for ReRAM, effectively mitigating sneak path interference and significantly enhancing error rate performance.

Contribution

It proposes a novel BP-based detector for ReRAM sneak path interference and integrates it with polar code decoding for improved reliability.

Findings

BP detector effectively identifies sneak path affected cells

Joint detector and decoder significantly reduce error rates

Tailored polar codes enhance ReRAM data integrity

Abstract

Despite the great promises that the resistive random access memory (ReRAM) has shown as the next generation of non-volatile memory technology, its crossbar array structure leads to a severe sneak path interference to the signal read back from the memory cell. In this paper, we first propose a novel belief propagation (BP) based detector for the sneak path interference in ReRAM. Based on the conditions for a sneak path to occur and the dependence of the states of the memory cells that are involved in the sneak path, a Tanner graph for the ReRAM channel is constructed, inside which specific messages are updated iteratively to get a better estimation of the sneak path affected cells. We further combine the graph of the designed BP detector with that of the BP decoder of the polar codes to form a joint detector and decoder. Tailored for the joint detector and decoder over the ReRAM channel, effective polar codes are constructed using the genetic algorithm. Simulation results show that the BP detector can effectively detect the cells affected by the sneak path, and the proposed polar codes and the joint detector and decoder can significantly improve the error rate performance of ReRAM.