MESL: Proposal for a Non-volatile Cascadable Magneto-Electric Spin Logic

Abstract

In the quest for novel, scalable and energy-efficient computing technologies, many non-charge based logic devices are being explored. Recent advances in multi-ferroic materials have paved the way for electric field induced low energy and fast switching of nano-magnets using the magneto-electric (ME) effect. In this paper, we propose a voltage driven logic-device based on the ME induced switching of nano-magnets. We further demonstrate that the proposed logic-device, which exhibits decoupled read and write paths, can be used to construct a complete logic family including XNOR, NAND and NOR gates. The proposed logic family shows good scalability with a quadratic dependence of switching energy with respect to the switching voltage. Further, the proposed logic-device has better robustness against the effect of thermal noise as compared to the conventional current driven switching of nano-magnets. A device-to-circuit level coupled simulation framework, including magnetization dynamics and electron transport model, has been developed for analyzing the present proposal. Using our simulation framework, we present energy and delay results for the proposed Magneto-Electric Spin Logic (MESL) gates.

Stochastic magnetoelectric neuron for temporal information encoding

“…Independent control of these two parameters will enable us to implement a stochastic nanoelectronic spiking neuron functionality that inherently performs temporal domain encoding of information, as explained in the previous section. (ii) Most of the work on ME-MTJs are catered for usage of these devices in logic and memory applications 25,30,31,33,34 . Our proposal involves utilizing the ME for enabling neuromorphic applications, and in particular, for temporal-encoding of stochastic SNNs.…”

From materials to systems: a multiscale analysis of nanomagnetic switching

“…In the rest of this section, we will show how to build circuit model for the Spin-Switch using the Modular Approach. -Magnetoelectric spin logic devices [79,87,88]: Works by using the magnetoelectric effect as the writer for a spin logic device. -Strain-based devices [89]: Works by using the piezzoelectric effect to manipulate the anisotropy of the nanomagnet and consequently reducing the write current in a spin-logic switch.…”

Energy-Efficient Memory Using Magneto-Electric Switching of Ferromagnets

“…Note, since multi-ferroics in general and ME effect in particular, is currently an area of intense research investigation, we do not follow a particular material set or experiment. Rather, in this work, we treat the ME effect by a generic parameter referred to as the magneto-electric co-efficient (α M E ) [8], [9], [13] (explained later in the manuscript). Such an abstraction of the ME effect is justified, since the aim of the present paper is not to explore the various physical phenomenons driving the ME effect.…”

“…Many device proposals for memory [5], [6] and logic applications [7]- [9] of the ME effect can be found in the literature. In this paper, we explore two different ME devices -i) ME magnetic tunnel junctions (ME-MTJs) [7] and ii) ME-XNOR device [7], [9]. We analyze the ME devices with respect to writability, readability and switching speed using a coupled magnetization dynamics and transport model.…”