Hybrid straintronics and spintronics: An ultra energy-efficient paradigm for logic and memory

Excessive energy dissipation during switching of logic and memory bits is the primary impediment to continued downscaling of electronic devices predicted by Moore's law. Nanomagnetic logic and memory switches are innately more energy-efficient than electronic switches because of correlated switching of spins that does not happen when charges are “switched” by moving them into and out of a transistor's channel. Furthermore, magnets do not “leak” unlike transistors. This results in much lower energy dissipation in a nanomagnetic switch compared to an electronic switch. However, this advantage is usually squandered in nanomagnetic logic (NML) paradigms because of very inefficient magnet switching schemes that result in mammoth dissipation in the switching circuit.