NAND and NOR logic-in-memory comprising silicon nanowire feedback field-effect transistors

Abstract

The processing of large amounts of data requires a high energy efficiency and fast processing time for high-performance computing systems. However, conventional von Neumann computing systems have performance limitations because of bottlenecks in data movement between separated processing and memory hierarchy, which causes latency and high power consumption. To overcome this hindrance, logic-in-memory (LIM) has been proposed that performs both data processing and memory operations. Here, we present a NAND and NOR LIM composed of silicon nanowire feedback field-effect transistors, whose configuration resembles that of CMOS logic gate circuits. The LIM can perform memory operations to retain its output logic under zero-bias conditions as well as logic operations with a high processing speed of nanoseconds. The newly proposed dynamic voltage-transfer characteristics verify the operating principle of the LIM. This study demonstrates that the NAND and NOR LIM has promising potential to resolve power and processing speed issues.