Reconfigurable Nanowire Transistors with Multiple Independent Gates for Efficient and Programmable Combinational Circuits

Abstract

We present MUX based programmable logic circuits built from newly proposed compact and efficient designs of combinational logic gate. These are enabled by reconfigurable Schottky barrier nanowire transistors with multiple independent gates, which can be dynamically switched between p- and n-type functionality. It will be shown that a single device can be used to replace paths of several transistors in series. This leads to topological differences and increased flexibility in circuit design. We found that especially complex functions, like Majority and Parity gates of many inputs, which are generally avoided in standard CMOS technology, benefit from the new device type. This can be exploited to directly map reconfigurable building blocks, e.g. dynamically switching NAND to NOR. Exemplary 6-functional logic circuits will be shown, which exhibit up to 80% reduction in transistor count, while maintaining the same functionality as compared to the CMOS reference design. Logical effort analysis indicates that 20% less circuit delay and 33% less normalized dynamic power consumption can be achieved.