Spin torque nano oscillators as key building blocks for the Systems-on-Chip of the future

Abstract

Emerging nanotechnologies have the potential to completely revolutionize the semiconductor industry by providing “more than Moore” capabilities. Instead of trying to compete in areas where conventional CMOS is still dominant, such as digital processing, emerging technologies can provide a perfect complement to CMOS in areas where conventional solutions are not scaling, such as memory, interconnect, analog and mixed-signal, and RF. This paper focuses on the application of such an emerging nanotechnology, Spin Torque Nano Oscillators (STNOs), for on-chip mixed-signal and RF applications. Bulky and power-hungry CMOS active (e.g. oscillators and amplifiers) and passive (e.g. capacitors and spiral inductors) elements can be replaced by single STNO nanodevice with improved overall metrics: small footprint of the order of 100nm on a side, low power, high-Q, tunability, etc. Additionally, since STNOs fundamentally use similar materials and geometries as Spin Torque Transfer RAM (STT-RAM), they can be readily integrated on chip and can benefit from all advances in that field. This paper proposes a new STNO device structure appropriate for on-chip mixed-signal and RF applications, as well as several hybrid STNO/CMOS circuits that take advantage of the STNO device characteristics to obtain desired behaviors, such as frequency generation, pass and notch filters, etc.