29.8 SHARC: Self-Healing Analog with RRAM and CNFETs

Abstract

Next-generation applications require processing on massive amount of data in realtime, exceeding the capabilities of electronic systems today. This has spurred research in a wide-range of areas: from new devices to replace silicon-based fieldeffect transistors (FETs) to new circuit and system architectures with fine-grained and dense integration of logic and memory. However, isolated improvements in just one area is insufficient. Rather, enabling these next-generation applications will require combining benefits across all levels of the computing stack: leveraging new devices to realize new circuits and architectures. For instance, carbon nanotube (CNT) field-effect transistors (CNFETs) for logic and Resistive Random-Access Memory (RRAM) for memory are two promising emerging nanotechnologies for energy-efficient electronics. However, CNFETs suffer from inherent imperfections (such as of metallic CNTs, m-CNTs), which have prohibited realizing large-scale CNFET circuits in the past. This work proposes a circuit design technique that integrates and combines the benefits of both CNFETs with RRAM to realize threedimensional (3D) circuits that are immune to m-CNTs. Leveraging this technique, we show the first experimental demonstration of CNFET-based analog mixed-signal circuits.

Advances in Carbon Nanotube Technologies

“…2 to realize large-scale CNFET systems. In particular, we experimentally demonstrate: a monolithic 3D imaging system [27], CNT CMOS analog and mixed-signal circuits [4][15], CNT CMOS SRAM arrays [16][17], and a RISC-V microprocessor [14]. These demonstrations are illustrated in Fig.…”

“…CNT CMOS analog and mixed-signal circuits -While CNFET digital logic can maintain correct logic functionality in the presence of m-CNTs (albeit with increased leakage and degraded SNM), m-CNTs can result in different failure mechanisms for analog CNFET circuits (e.g., degrading amplifier gain resulting in incorrect operation of mixed-signal circuit blocks such as digital-to-analog converters (DACs) or analog-to-digital converters (ADCs)). In [4], we present a combined processing and design technique: SHARC (Self-Healing Analog with RRAM and CNFETs) that leverages the programmability of Resistive Random-Access Memory (RRAM) to automatically "self-heal" analog circuits to operate correctly despite the presence of m-CNTs. Using SHARC, we experimentally demonstrate the first analog and mixed-signal CNT CMOS circuits (which are robust to m-CNTs): 4-bit DAC and successive approximation register (SAR) ADCs [4][15] (Fig.…”

“…In [4], we present a combined processing and design technique: SHARC (Self-Healing Analog with RRAM and CNFETs) that leverages the programmability of Resistive Random-Access Memory (RRAM) to automatically "self-heal" analog circuits to operate correctly despite the presence of m-CNTs. Using SHARC, we experimentally demonstrate the first analog and mixed-signal CNT CMOS circuits (which are robust to m-CNTs): 4-bit DAC and successive approximation register (SAR) ADCs [4][15] (Fig. 5b).…”

An OLED display driver IC with high‐gain fast‐slew circuit and on‐the‐fly self‐repair technique for high‐resolution display

“…This paper proposes an on-the-fly self-repair (OFSR) circuit that can be used to repair image defects caused by vertical line defects on the display, similar to the built-in selfrepair scheme in the memory cell. [13][14][15] As the number of source channels increases to provide high resolution, the failure rate of the source channel also increases, leading to image failure. The proposed OFSR can solve the image failure due to manufacturing defect and external damage in the end-user environment by replacing the faulty source channel.…”

Carbon Nanotubes for Radiation-Tolerant Electronics

“…Owing to their ideal electrostatic control (due to the ultrathin ∼1 nm body) and simultaneously high carrier transport, carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNFETs, Figure ) are projected to provide an order of magnitude improvement in energy-delay product (EDP, a metric of energy efficiency) in comparison to today’s silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology . Moreover, CNFETs are a rapidly maturing technology, with experimental demonstrations ranging from digital logic gates, − to complex analog and mixed-signal circuits, , to complete large-scale digital systems. − However, although recent advances in CNFET technology have been significant, only limited studies on their radiation tolerance have been performed. − Moreover, these works do not study realistic ( e . g ., solid-state and VLSI-compatible) CNFET devices for next-generation electronic systems and thus do not fully represent the potential benefits of a future CNFET radiation-tolerant technology (see Supporting Information for a full discussion on prior works).…”