Limits of CMOS Technology and Interest of NEMS Relays for Adiabatic Logic Applications

In this paper, a detailed analysis and comparison of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) and CMOS technologies for low power adiabatic logic implementation is presented. Fundamental limits of CMOS-based adiabatic logic are identified. Analytic relations describing the energy-performance for sub-threshold adiabatic logic are also explicitly derived and optimized. The interest of combining NEMS technology and adiabatic logic is described, and the key NEMS switch parameters that govern the dissipation-performance relationship are identified as the switch commutation frequency, its actuation voltage, and the contact resistance between the switch electrodes. Furthermore, NEMS-based adiabatic gates architectures are described. Finally, the contribution of the power-clock or energy recovery generator is estimated in order to compare CMOS and NEMS-based adiabatic architectures at the system level. The paper concludes with a detailed comparison of the energy-performance of the different explored technologies.