Extremely Low-Power Hybrid Silicon/Nanoelectronic Circuits
PI: K. Likharev
We have proposed a new approach (dubbed "CMOL:') to the reduction of power consumption in microeiectronics. In this approach, a silicon chip is augmented by a simple add-on nanowire circuit ("crossbar"'), with two-terminal nanodevices formed at each crosspoint. (Reliable fabrication of nanodevices of the required "programmable diode" functionality has already been demonstrated by eiectronic industry in the context of their memory applications.) The crossbar is connected to the semiconductor transistor base via a pin-based interface distributed all over the chip area. Our simulations have shown that digitai CMOL circuits may reduce power consumption of semiconductor chips by at least two orders of magnitude (at the same performance) and thus contribute very significantly to energy conservation. Our pian include experimental demonstration, within the next few years, of the first operational CMOL chips. (AFOSH, ORO,MARCO,NSF)