Systematic method to evaluate energy dissipation in adiabatic quantum-flux-parametron logic

Abstract

Adiabatic quantum-flux-parametron (AQFP) logic is an energy-efficient superconductor logic. It operates with zero static power dissipation and very low dynamic power dissipation owing to adiabatic switching. In previous numerical studies, we have evaluated the energy dissipation of basic AQFP logic gates and demonstrated sub-kBT switching energy, where kB is Boltzmann's constant and T is the temperature, by integrating the product of the excitation current and voltage associated with the gates over time. However, this method is not applicable to complex logic gates, especially those in which the number of inputs is different from the number of outputs. In this study, we establish a systematic method to evaluate the energy dissipation of general AQFP logic gates. In the proposed method, the energy dissipation is calculated by subtracting the energy dissipation of the peripheral circuits from that of the entire circuit. In this way, the energy change due to the interaction between gates, which makes it difficult to evaluate the energy dissipation, can be deducted. We evaluate the energy dissipation of a majority gate using this method.