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.

磁系统对计算逻辑具有吸引力，因为它们是非易失性的，并且每个逻辑操作都提供了低功率耗散的希望。 最近的工作表明，可以（1）配置纳米磁体以实现通用逻辑门（可用于实现任何布尔函数），并且（2）不具备早期，笨重的铁氧体核心磁铁的缺点。 这项工作将调查量子点细胞自动机（QCA）体系结构方案中的线印刷定义的纳米磁体 - 在其中单个纳米磁体之间的直接物理相互作用产生逻辑功能。此处提出的工作旨在使从研究逻辑门转向研究简单电路。 分析电路应依次对由磁性QCA（MQCA）设备制成的简单计算系统的预期性能提供重大见解。 系统是所需的最终结果。 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2。制造两个看似非常合适的应用程序空间所需的核心逻辑3。使用（1）和（2）生成的设计，见解和实验数据，以确定MQCA设备在系统级别上是否表现优于基于半导体的等效物。 （并且通常比）在设备密度，功耗，功率密度，对热波动的耐受性和全球带宽的背景下，公路末端的CMOS。 由于该技术的基本组成部分已经在实验中证明，因此现在确定该技术的可行性的一些挑战现在转移到计算机科学家。 但是，这项工作还将讨论将涉及要探索系统的“核心”部分制造的实验。在系统的背景下，磁性材料可以提供简单的制造，健壮性和真实的室温运行。 这可能表明需要强大的性能和低功耗的MQCA应用空间。磁性材料也对辐射不敏感，这可能表明在诸如Outerspace或卫星和军事应用等严酷的操作环境中表现出色。 在系统级别，这项工作将针对数字信号处理和可重编程逻辑。 在实验上，这项工作将研究I/O结构，有效的互连和可编程多数门。在本文中，这项研究不仅会为磁性QCA的生存能力提供重要的见解，而且许多提出的工作也是独立实施的 - 并且将特别适用于分子QCA设备系统。