Minimum-energy state guided physical design for Nanomagnet Logic

Abstract

Nanomagnet Logic (NML) accomplishes computation through magnetic dipole-dipole interactions. It has the potential for low-power dissipation, radiation hardness and non-volatility. NML circuits have been designed to process and move information via nearest neighbor, device-to-device coupling. However, the resultant layouts often fail to function correctly. This paper reveals an important cause of such failures showing that a robust NML layout must take into account not only nearest neighbor, but also the next nearest neighbor couplings. A new design method is then introduced to address this issue that leverages the minimum-energy states of an NML circuit to guide the layout process. Case studies show that the new method is efficient and effective in arriving at correct NML layouts.