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Title: Beyond-CMOS Logic and Interconnect using Collective Phenomena of Magnon, Skyrmion and Plasmon
Committee:
Dr. Azad Naeemi, ECE, Chair , Advisor
Dr. Arijit Raychowdhury, ECE
Dr. Jeff Davis, ECE
Dr. Dimitri Nikonov, Intel
Dr. Phillip First, Physics
Abstract:
The objective of this dissertation is to develop emerging beyond-CMOS logic and interconnect solutions using two alternative “tokens” for information processing - electron spin and plasma oscillation. Particularly, this research focuses on three collective phenomena, otherwise known as quasiparticles – magnons, skyrmions and plasmons. Following a bottom-up approach, this research diverts from the conventional route of building complementary logic gates (such as NAND, NOR) out of devices that behave like gated-switches. Instead, the work explores the possibility of deriving complex logic gates from functionally-enhanced devices by exploiting the wave-nature of magnons and plasmons for computing. Specifically, the innate majority-voting capability has been utilized for building majority logic gates that can enable efficient representation of circuits for complex computation functions. In the field of magnon-based data processing, the integration of magnetoelectric effect provides the possibility of low power excitation/detection, non-volatile memory, and wave-pipelining using clocking. The choice of a novel logic device demands a compatible fast and energy efficient interconnect technology. Information transmission via magnonic and plasmonic interconnect have been utilized to complement the respective logic gates at the local level. At the intermediate level, a more robust and effective solution is required to provide ultra-low power dissipation with high throughput. A skyrmion-based interconnect technology has been introduced in this dissertation, compatible with spintronic-based logic. Key topics like information transmission (write data), propagation, detection (read-out data) and signal transduction have been discussed with respect to both logic and interconnect. The additional requirements for logic application like amplification, concatenability, non-reciprocity, complete set of Boolean operations and robustness with respect to thermal fluctuations for spintronic-based devices have been explored in this dissertation.
