Magnetic - field- controlled reconfigurable semiconductor logic

摘要

现代电子器件需要速度越来越快的信息处理器rn和更强大的功能.基于磁效应的逻辑器件有可rn能满足这些需求中的其中一些.尤其是,当电rn压和磁场都可被用来控制器件时,其功能就会rn增强.Jinki Hong及其同事用小能带隙半导体rn"锑化铟"设计了一个微通道,其电流-电压rn特点强烈依赖于所施加磁场的方向和强度.用rn这些器件做成的电路可以被编程和重新编程,rn来执行如AND、OR、NAND和NOR等特定逻rn辑功能.这一方法有可能为非易失性、可重rn新配置的逻辑电路(在这类电路中,硬件与软rn件之间的区别几乎消失了)提供一个有趣的新rn平台.%Logic devices based on magnetism show promise for increasing computational efficiency while decreasing consumed power. They offer zero quiescent power and yet combine novel functions such as programmable logic operation and non-volatile built-in memory. However, practical efforts to adapt a magnetic device to logic suffer from a low signal-to-noise ratio and other performance attributes that are not adequate for logic gates. Rather than exploiting magnetoresistive effects that result from spin-dependent transport of carriers, we have approached the development of a magnetic logic device in a different way: we use the phenomenon of large magnetoresistance found in non-magnetic semiconductors in high electric fields. Here we report a device showing a strong diode characteristic that is highly sensitive to both the sign and the magnitude of an external magnetic field, offering a reversible change between two different characteristic states by the application of a magnetic field. This feature results from magnetic control of carrier generation and recombination in an InSb p-n bilayer channel9. Simple circuits combining such elementary devices are fabricated and tested, and Boolean logic functions including AND, OR, NAND and NOR are performed. They are programmed dynamically by external electric or magnetic signals, demonstrating magnetic-field-controlled semiconductor reconfigurable logic at room temperature. This magnetic technology permits a new kind of spintronic device, characterized as a current switch rather than a voltage switch, and provides a simple and compact platform for non-volatile reconfigurable logic devices.