Memory cell comprising an OTP nonvolatile memory unit and a SRAM unit

Memory cells comprising an SRAM and an OTP memory unit are disclosed that combine the advantages of both technologies and can be fabricated by standard CMOS manufacturing without additional masking. Disclosed concepts and details may be applied to and utilized in other systems requiring memory and/or employing other fabrication technologies. Among other advantages, the SRAM part of disclosed memory cells allows countless programming of the cell, which is useful, for example, during the prototyping. The OTP part is utilized to permanently program the memory cell by either using external data or the data already existing in the SRAM part of the cell. The value held by the OTP unit may also be written directly into the SRAM part of the cell.