the path toward efficient nano-mechanical circuits and systems

2nd Berkeley Symposium on Energy Efficient Electronic Systems

The Path Toward Efficient Nano-Mechanical Circuits

and Systemshttp://www.chi-yun.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/ba-road-less.jp

Tsu-Jae King Liu1

Elad Alon1, Vladimir Stojanovic2, Dejan Markovic3

1University of California at Berkeley2Massachusetts Institute of Technology3University of California at Los Angeles

November 3, 2011

Source: ITU, Mark Lipacis, Morgan Stanley Research

http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/2SETUP_12142009_RI.pdf

# D

EVIC

ES (M

M)

YEAR

Market Growth

Investment

Transistor Scaling

Higher Performance,Lower Cost

Proliferation of Electronic Devices

2

Infrastructionalcore

Sensory swarm(trillions of devices)

Vision for 2020: Swarms of Electronics

J. Rabaey, ASPDAC 2008 3

Driver for More of Moore’s Law

Driver for More Than Moore’s Law

Mobile access

Why Mechanical Switches?

• Relays have zero off-state leakage zero leakage energy

Source

DrainGate

Air gap

tgap tdimple

3-Terminal Switch

• Relays switch on/off abruptly allows for aggressive VDD scaling

(ultra-low dynamic energy)

1.E-14

1.E-12

1.E-10

1.E-08

1.E-06

1.E-04

Measured I-V

Gate Voltage

Dra

in C

urre

nt

S≈0.1mV/dec

VPIVRL

4

• Electro-Mechanical Relay Design for Digital ICs

• Relay-Based IC Design

• Relay Reliability

• Summary

Outline

• A voltage is applied between the gate and body to bring the channel into contact with the source and drain. Folded-flexure design relieves residual stress. Gate oxide layer insulates the channel from the gate.

4-Terminal Relay Structure

Body

Drain

Source

Body

Gate

Channel

A

A’

Isometric View:

Drain Source

Gate

Body

GateOxide

substrate

IDS

insulator

AA’ cross-section: OFF state

AA’ cross-section: ON state

6R. Nathanael et al., IEDM 2009

4-T Relay Process Flow (I)

100nm SiO2

80 nm Al2O3

50 nm W

Si substrate

200nm100nm

Deposit Al2O3 substrate insulator• ALD at 300oC

Deposit & pattern W electrodes• DC magnetron sputtering

Deposit 1st sacrificial LTO• LPCVD at 400oCDefine contact regions

Deposit 2nd sacrificial LTO

Deposit & pattern W channel

Deposit Al2O3 gate oxide

50 nm W

40 nm Al2O3

SiO2

Mask 1: Electrode

Mask 2: Contact dimple

Mask 3: Channel


4-T Relay Process Flow (II)

8

TiO2

HFvapor

p+ poly-Si0.4Ge0.6

SiO2

1m

Deposit p+ poly-Si0.4Ge0.6 gate• LPCVD at 410oC

Coat with ultra-thin (~0.3nm) TiO2• ALD at 300oC

Pattern gate & gate oxide layers using LTO as a hard mask

Release in HF vapor

Mask 4: Structure

R. Nathanael et al., IEDM 2009

R. Nathanael et al., 2009 IEDM / V. Pott et al., Proc. IEEE, Vol. 98, pp. 2076-2094, 2010

4-T Relay ID-VG Characteristic

• Zero IOFF; S < 0.1 mV/dec• Hysteresis is due to pull-in mode operation (tdimple > tgap/3)

and surface adhesion.

Plan View SEM of 4-T Relay

20 μm

9

1E-14

1E-12

1E-10

1E-08

1E-06

1E-04

1E-02

0 2 4 6 8 10

I DS(A

)

VGS (V)

VD = 2VVS = 0V

VB = 0VVB = –9V

(a)

• Perfectly complementary operation is achieved in left and right channels

• VBL = 0 V; VBR = 10 V

Plan View Close-Up of Channel Region

See-Saw Relay Structure

Measured ID-VG Characteristics

1E-15

1E-13

1E-11

1E-09

1E-07

1E-05

1E-03

0 2 4 6 8 10

I DS

(A)

VG (V)

IDS_RIGHT

IDS_LEFT

VON_LEFT=VOFF_RIGHT=7.14V

VON_RIGHT=VOFF_LEFT=3.16V

LA=42μmLA1=12μmWA=40μm

J. Jeon et al., IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 31, pp. 371-373, 2010 10

See-Saw Relay Latch

SRAM Cell VCTRL

VDATANMOS

G

DRDL

SRSL

BRBL

VSN

VWL

VBL

Seesaw

VDD

GND

NMOSStorage Node

Demonstrated SRAM Cell Operation

0

6

12

VW

L (V

)0

6

12

VD

ATA

(V)

0

6

12

0 5 10 15 20 25Time (s)

VB

L (V)

0

6

12V

CTR

L (V)

R = READW = WRITE (b-a)

(b-c)

(b-d)

W '0'

R '0' R '1' R '1'R '0'

W '0' W '1' W '1'

(b-b)

V DD=12V

11J. Jeon et al., IEEE/ASME J. MicroElectroMechanical Systems, Vol. 19, pp. 1012-1014, 2010.

4-T Relay Turn-On Delay

• Turn-on delay improves with gate overdrive, and saturates at ~200ns for VB = 0V.

Turn-ON Time vs. Gate Voltage Turn-ON Time vs. Body Bias

• Turn-on delay improves w/ body biasing to reduce VPI 100ns turn-on delay


, , Relay Scaling• Scaling has similar benefits for relays as for MOSFETs.

65 nm Relay DesignSpring constant 1 / Mass 1 / 3

Pull-in voltage 1 / Pull-in delay 1 /

Switching energy 1 / 3

Device density 2

Power density 1

Relay ParameterScalingFactor

V. Pott et al., Proc. IEEE, Vol. 98, pp. 2076-2094, 2010

Pull-inVoltage:

Pull-inDelay:

Parameter ValueActuation Area 65260 nm2

Actuation Gap 15 nmDimple Gap 10 nm

Pull-in voltage 0.4V - 1VPull-in delay 100ns – 10ns

Atk

V0

3gapeff

PI

DD

PI

gapeff

dimplePI V

Vtk

mtt

13




• Summary

Outline

4 gate delays 1 mechanical delay

Digital IC Design with Relays

F. Chen et al., ICCAD 2008

• CMOS: delay is set by electrical time constant‒ Quadratic delay penalty for stacking devices Buffer & distribute logical/electrical effort over many stages

• Relays: delay is dominated by mechanical movement‒ Can stack ~100 devices before telec ≈ tmech

Implement relay logic as a single complex gate

15

Relay-Based VLSI Building Blocks

2010 ISSCC Jack Raper Award for Outstanding Technology Directions

F. Chen et al., ISSCC 2010 16

Technology Transfer to SEMATECH

1st prototype: 120 µm x 150 µm Scaled relay: 20 µm x 20 µm

SEMATECH: 0.25 µm lithoUC Berkeley: 1 µm litho

17

Energy-Delay Comparison with CMOS

transition probability=0.01cap/CMOS inverter=0.57fF

• Scaled relay technology is projected to provide for >10x energy savings, at clock rates up to ~100MHz

V. Pott et al., Proc. IEEE, Vol. 98, pp. 2076-2094, 2010 18

0 V

Vdd

OutputInput

30-stage FO4 inverter chain:

0 V

VddOutput

30-relay chain:

CMOS

65 nm technology




• Summary

Outline

• Hysteresis voltage (VPI-VRL) scales with the pull-in voltage (VPI)

• Surface adhesion force scales with area of contacting region(s):

ignoring surface adhesion force

Extracted from measured VPI,VRL

Stiction

H. Kam et al., 2009 IEDM 20

VGB

IDS

VPIVRL

Relay I-V

Contact Design for Logic Gates

• High RON (up to ~10 kΩ) is acceptable To achieve good endurance and reliability:

1. Use hard electrode material Tungsten2. Apply a surface coating to reduce surface force

and current density ALD TiO2

VDD

Electrical DelaytRC < 1 ps

Mechanical DelaytPI ~10 – 100 nsRON

21F. Chen et al., ICCAD 2008

CL

Contact Stability

• Variations are likely due to W oxidation• No surface wear is seen after 1 billion ON/OFF cycles

ON-state Resistance vs. # ON/OFF Cycles AFM Measurements

Never tested

Dimple

Rel

ativ

e di

strib

utio

n (a

. i.)

19nm

Dim

ple

(a) (b)

Rel

ativ

e di

strib

utio

n (a

. i.)

0 10 20 30 40 50

0 10 20 30 40 50

Height (nm)

Height (nm)

19nm

Dim

ple

(c) (d)

FRESH CONTACT

Contact Dimple

Rel

ativ

e di

strib

utio

n (a

. i.)

19nm

Dim

ple

Rel

ativ

e di

strib

utio

n (a

. i.)

0 10 20 30 40 50

0 10 20 30 40 50

Height (nm)

Height (nm)

Dim

ple

AFTER 109 cycles

Contact Dimple

3 μm

3 μm

19nm

1.E+02

1.E+03

1.E+04

1.E+05

1.E+06

1.E+0 1.E+3 1.E+6 1.E+9No. of on/off cycles

Con

tact

resi

stan

ce [Ω

]

100k specification

L=25m

Measured in ambient

H. Kam et al., IEDM 2009, R. Nathanael et al., IEDM 2009 22

Relay Endurance

• Endurance increases exponentially with decreasing VDD, and linearly with decreasing CL

• Endurance is projected to exceed 1015 cycles @ 1V

H. Kam et al., IEDM 2010 23

Nanoscale Relay Technology

• Sub-100 mV operation is possible‒ Zero IOFF enables VDD scaling without increasing leakage power‒ Hysteresis voltage scales with pull-in voltage

24

Node (nm) 15 11 8Actuation Gap (nm) 5.5 4 3Pull-in Voltage (mV) 113 100 86Release Voltage (mV) 73 66 58

* All dimensions scaled with technology node

Footprint for two switches = 14×14F2

Node (nm) 15 11 8Supply Voltage (V) 0.4 0.4 0.4Mechanical Delay (ns) 6.2 3.8 2.5

L. Hutin et al., to be published

Source1

Drain1

Source2

Drain2

Device Layout

Cross-Point Electro-Mechanical NVM Array

Smallest cell layout area (4F2); 3-D stackable Low-voltage operation Excellent retention behavior Multiple-time programmable (> 10,000 cycles)

25W. Kwon et al., to appear in IEEE Electron Device Letters

1E-13

1E-12

1E-11

1E-10

1E-09

1E-08

1E-07

1E-06

1E-05

1E-04

-1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5VBL[V]

|Cur

rent

| [A

]

Set stateReset state

• Electro-mechanical diode cell design:‒ Open circuit in Reset state‒ Diode in Set state (built-in electric-field electrostatic force)

Measured I-VCross-sectional SEMSEM of NVM Array




• Summary

Outline

Summary

• Mechanical switches have the ideal properties of zero off-state leakage and abrupt turn-on/turn-off. potential for achieving very low E/op (<1 aJ)

• Dimensional scaling is required to achieve low-voltage operation and adequate reliability ‒ VDD < 100 mV‒ endurance > 1015 cyclesMaterials optimization can yield further improvements.

• New circuit and system architectures are needed to fully realize the potential energy-efficiency benefits. device and circuit design co-optimization is key!

27

Acknowledgements• NEM-Relay Team (current and former) members:

Post-docs: Louis Hutin; Hei Kam (now with Intel);Vincent Pott (now with IME, Singapore)

Students: Rhesa Nathanael, Jaeseok Jeon (now with Rutgers U.), I-Ru Chen, Yenhao Chen, Jack Yaung, Matt Spencer;Fred Chen and Hossein Fariborzi (MIT);Chengcheng Wang and Kevin Dwan (UCLA)

• Funding: DARPA/MTO NEMS Program DARPA/MARCO Focus Center Research Program

• Center for Circuits and Systems Solutions (C2S2)• Center for Materials, Structures, and Devices (MSD)

NSF Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems (COINS) NSF Center for Energy Efficient Electronics Science (E3S)

• UC Berkeley Micro/Nanofabrication Laboratory28

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Displacement (x) due to gravity?

2. Mechanical shock causing pull-in?‒ requires acceleration > 106g

due to small m (10-14 grams)

3. Thermal vibration? x ≈ 1Å for T = 300K

29

fm 1.0effk

mgx

2

21

21 xkTk effB

the path toward efficient nano-mechanical circuits and systems

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