Design and simulation of magnetic logic device for next generation data processing

Next generation data processing unit requires high computational speed with minimum power consumption. The current technology which is driven by scaled CMOS architecture, depends on electrical charge to create or hold one of the two states - "on" or "off". Today's data processing unit contains many such devices to build and store electric charges, thereby creating excessive heat component within the computing unit. The generated heat affects devices and thereby malfunctions the computational process. A new generation of data processing unit in the form of network of closely coupled ferromagnetic dots is described in this paper. The magnetic logic device operates by manipulating the magnetic states of closely coupled single-domain nanomagnets. The computation takes place via magnetic interaction between closely placed ferromagnetic dots and not by transport of electric charge. The permalloy dots are designed in ellipsoidal shape with dimensions of 320 nm x 120 nm and 20 nm of thickness. The ellipsoidal shape of permalloy dots generates single domain inherent magnetization along the major axis. The remnant magnetization of the driver dot influences the nearby ferromagnetic dot to align magnetic domain in either opposite or same direction based on the coupling arrangements. Two types of coupling: ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic coupling in a coplanar arrangement of dots are discussed and used to design different logic functions in this paper. Three basic digital circuit operations: Identity, AND, and OR are simulated using Object Oriented Micromagnetic Framework (OOMMF). An attempt to develop a combinational digital circuit in OOMMF simulator is also described in this paper.