NANO: Applications, Architectures, and Circuit Design for Nano-scale Magnetic Logic Devices

NANO：纳米级磁逻辑器件的应用、架构和电路设计

• 批准号: 0621990
• 负责人: Michael Niemier
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Notre Dame
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-01 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0621990&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NANO; Applications; Architectures; Circuit; Design

Magnetic systems are attractive for computational logic because they are nonvolatile and offer the promise of low power dissipation per logic operation. Recent work shows that nanomagnets can (1) be configured to realize a universal logic gate (which can be used to implement any Boolean function) and (2) do not possess the disadvantages of the early, bulky, ferrite core magnets. This work will investigate lithographically defined nanomagnets within the quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) architecture scheme - where the direct physical interaction between individual nanomagnets yields logic functionality.The work proposed here aims to make the jump from studying logic gates to studying simple circuits. Analyzing circuits should in turn provide significant insight as to the expected performance of simple computational systems made from magnetic QCA (mQCA) devices. Systems are the desired end result. The proposal has three main goals:1. To investigate potential application spaces for systems of mQCA devices.2. To fabricate the core logic needed for two seemingly well-suited application spaces.3. To use the designs, insights, and experimental data produced by (1) and (2) to determine whether or not mQCA devices can outperform semiconductor-based equivalents at the systems-level.The performance of nano-scale magnets appears to be competitive with (and is often better than) end-of-the-roadmap CMOS in the context of device density, power consumption, power density, tolerance to thermal fluctuations, and global bandwidth. As the basic components of this technology have been experimentally demonstrated, some of the challenges in determining the viability of this technology now shift to computer scientists. However, this work will also discuss experiments that will involve the fabrication of the "core" parts of the systems to be explored.In the context of systems, magnetic materials could offer simplicity of fabrication, robustness, and true room temperature operation. This might suggest application spaces for mQCA that require robust performance and low power consumption. Magnetic materials are also insensitive to radiation, which might suggest superior performance in harsh operating environments such as outerspace, or for satellite and military applications. At the systems level, this work will target digital signal processing and reprogrammable logic. Experimentally, this work will investigate an I/O structure, efficient interconnect, and a programmable majority gate.Finally, not only will this study provide significant insight as to the viability of magnetic QCA, but much of the proposed work is also implementation independent - and will apply particularly well to systems of molecular QCA devices too.

磁系统对于计算逻辑是有吸引力的，因为它们是非易失性的并且提供每个逻辑操作的低功耗的承诺。 最近的工作表明，纳米磁体可以（1）被配置为实现通用逻辑门（可用于实现任何布尔函数），并且（2）不具有早期，笨重的铁氧体磁芯磁体的缺点。 这项工作将研究光刻定义的纳米磁体内的量子点细胞自动机（QCA）架构scheme -其中单个纳米磁体之间的直接物理相互作用产生逻辑functional.The工作提出这里的目的是使跳跃从研究逻辑门到研究简单的电路。 分析电路应该反过来提供重要的洞察力，以预期的性能，简单的计算系统由磁性QCA（mQCA）设备。 系统是理想的最终结果。 该提案有三个主要目标：1。研究mQCA设备系统的潜在应用空间.构建两个看似非常合适的应用空间所需的核心逻辑。3.使用（1）和（2）产生的设计、见解和实验数据来确定mQCA器件是否可以在系统级优于基于半导体的等效器件。在器件密度、功耗、功率密度、热波动容限和全局带宽方面，纳米级磁体的性能似乎与路线图末期CMOS具有竞争力（并且通常优于）。 随着这项技术的基本组成部分已经得到实验证明，确定这项技术可行性的一些挑战现在转移到计算机科学家身上。 然而，这项工作也将讨论实验，将涉及制造的“核心”部分的系统进行explored.In系统的背景下，磁性材料可以提供简单的制造，鲁棒性，和真正的室温操作。 这可能意味着mQCA的应用空间需要强大的性能和低功耗。磁性材料对辐射也不敏感，这可能意味着在恶劣的工作环境中（如外层空间）或卫星和军事应用中具有上级性能。 在系统级，这项工作将针对数字信号处理和可重编程逻辑。 实验上，这项工作将调查的I/O结构，有效的互连，和可编程的多数门。最后，这项研究不仅将提供重要的洞察力，以磁QCA的可行性，但大部分的拟议工作也是独立的实现-并将特别适用于系统的分子QCA设备太。