Voltage-Controlled Topological-Spin Switch for Ultra-Low-Energy Computing--Performance Modeling and Benchmarking

TL;DR

This paper introduces a voltage-controlled topological-spin switch (vTOPSS) that leverages topological insulators and magnetic insulators to achieve ultra-low-energy Boolean logic operations with superior performance metrics compared to existing spin-based and CMOS devices.

Contribution

The paper presents the design, theoretical modeling, and benchmarking of vTOPSS, a novel spin switch that significantly reduces energy consumption and delay, with potential for competitive CMOS performance.

Findings

vTOPSS achieves sub-10 aJ energy-per-bit.

It offers 100× lower energy dissipation than existing spin devices.

The energy-delay product can be reduced to 10^{-29} Js with improved materials.

Abstract

A voltage-controlled topological-spin switch (vTOPSS) that uses a hybrid topological insulator-magnetic insulator multiferroic is presented that can implement Boolean logic operations with sub-10 aJ energy-per-bit and energy-delay product on the order of $10^{-27}$ Js. The device uses a topological insulator (TI), which has the highest efficiency of conversion of electric field to spin torque yet observed at room temperature, and a low-moment magnetic insulator (MI) that can respond rapidly to a given spin torque. We present the theory of operation of vTOPSS, develop analytic models of its performance metrics, elucidate performance scaling with dimensions and voltage, and benchmark vTOPSS against existing spin-based and CMOS devices. Compared to existing spin-based devices, such as all-spin logic and charge-spin logic, vTOPSS offers 100$\times$ lower energy dissipation and (40-100)$\times$ lower energy-delay product. With experimental advances and improved material properties, we show that the energy-delay product of vTOPSS can be lowered to $10^{-29}$ Js, competitive against existing CMOS technology. Finally, we establish that interconnect issues that dominate the performance in CMOS logic are relatively less significant for vTOPSS, implying that highly resistive materials can indeed be used to interconnect vTOPSS devices.