Dynamic Slingshot Operation for Low-Operation- Voltage Nanoelectromechanical (NEM) Memory Switches

Abstract

A dynamic slingshot pull-in operation is presented by using the influence of inertia and damping on the nanoelectromechanical (NEM) memory switch operation. To confirm the validity of the proposed idea, a finite element analysis (FEA) simulation, that reflects the actual cantilever beam structure, is performed, and an analytical one-dimensional (1D), the parallel plate model is tested. According to the analytical and FEA data, the dynamic slingshot pull-in voltage can be achieved ∼0.78 times and ∼0.73 times lower than conventional pull-in voltage under near-vacuum conditions, respectively. It is also shown that the proposed dynamic slingshot operation is more effective for lowering operation voltage (V DD) and boosting the chip density of complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-NEM hybrid reconfigurable logic (RL) circuits than the static slingshot operation. INDEX TERMS Complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor-nanoelectromechanical (CMOS-NEM) hybrid reconfigurable logic (RL) circuits, operation voltage (V DD), and dynamic slingshot pull-in.

Nanoelectromechanical-Switch-Based Binary Content-Addressable Memory (NEMBCAM)

“…In the NEMBCAM write operation, the switch operation is dominant because the pull-in occurs only once during the entire operation. Furthermore, methods of reducing Vp have been proposed, and it has been experimentally confirmed that Vp can be lower than 1.2V [15], [16]. Thus, this study only considers Vs to make it lower than 1.2V.…”