Voltage-Controlled Spin-Orbit-Torque-Based Nonvolatile Flip-Flop Designs for Ultra-Low-Power Applications

Xiao Liu; Erya Deng; Lichuan Luo; Linjun Jiang; Youguang Zhang; Dijun Liu; Biao Pan; Wang Kang

doi:10.3390/app132011316

Applied Sciences (Oct 2023)

Voltage-Controlled Spin-Orbit-Torque-Based Nonvolatile Flip-Flop Designs for Ultra-Low-Power Applications

Xiao Liu,
Erya Deng,
Lichuan Luo,
Linjun Jiang,
Youguang Zhang,
Dijun Liu,
Biao Pan,
Wang Kang

Affiliations

Xiao Liu: School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Erya Deng: College of Electronic Information and Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
Lichuan Luo: School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Linjun Jiang: School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, Fert Beijing Institute, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Youguang Zhang: School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Dijun Liu: School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Biao Pan: School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, Fert Beijing Institute, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Wang Kang: School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, Fert Beijing Institute, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/app132011316
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 13, no. 20
p. 11316

Abstract

Read online

Flip-flop (FF) serves as a fundamental unit in various sequential logic circuits and complex digital electronic systems for generating, transforming, and temporarily storing digital signals. Nonvolatility plays a crucial role in FFs by ensuring instant data recovery after unexpected data loss. Nonvolatile flip-flop can quickly recover in a self-powered environment, making it suitable for application environments such as the Internet of Things (IOT). Unfortunately, most existing nonvolatile FFs (NVFFs) suffer from extended delays and high energy consumption during data backup and restore operations. In this paper, we propose two innovative voltage-controlled nonvolatile FFs (VC-FFs), namely VC-DFF (voltage-controlled D-FF) and VC-SRFF (voltage-controlled SR-FF), which address these challenges using voltage-controlled spin-orbit torque (VC-SOT) devices. The proposed designs are evaluated using a 40 nm CMOS process. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed designs achieve significant improvements in write (recovery) energy consumption, with over 7.2× (1.54×) and 18.7× (2×) enhancements compared to their STT- and SOT-based counterparts, respectively.

Published in Applied Sciences

ISSN: 2076-3417 (Online)
Publisher: MDPI AG
Country of publisher: Switzerland
LCC subjects: Technology: Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General); Science: Biology (General); Science: Physics; Science: Chemistry
Website: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci

About the journal

Abstract

Keywords