Functionality-Enhanced Logic Gate Design Enabled by Symmetrical Reconfigurable Silicon Nanowire Transistors

Reconfigurable silicon nanowire field-effect transistors (RFETs) combine the functionality of classical unipolar p-type and n-type FETs in one universal device. In this paper, we show devices exhibiting full symmetry between pand n-functionality, while having identical geometry. Scaling trends and feasibility for digital circuit integration are evaluated based on TCAD simulations. The method of logical effort is applied to analyze fundamental differences in circuit topology using this unique type of multigate transistors. We introduce a set of multifunctional logic gates based on RFETs providing all basic Boolean functions, including NAND/NOR, AND/OR, and XOR/XNOR, and compared them with classical implementations. Two 1-bit full adders based on those gates are presented as an insightful example that RFETs are one possible solution to increase the system functionality. Moreover, it is shown that an asymmetric transistor layout with individual optimization of both top gates can be used to increase the speed of those circuits.

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