Reconfigurable Compute-In-Memory on Field-Programmable Ferroelectric Diodes

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 22; no. 18; pp. 7690 - 7698
• Main Authors: Liu, Xiwen, Ting, John, He, Yunfei, Fiagbenu, Merrilyn Mercy Adzo, Zheng, Jeffrey, Wang, Dixiong, Frost, Jonathan, Musavigharavi, Pariasadat, Esteves, Giovanni, Kisslinger, Kim, Anantharaman, Surendra B., Stach, Eric A., Olsson, Roy H., Jariwala, Deep
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 28.09.2022
• Subjects: compute in memory; ferroelectric diode; Letter; NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; neural network, nonvolatile; parallel search; reconfigurable architecture; ternary content-addressable memory; nonvolatile; ternary content-addressable memory; ferroelectric diode; parallel search; reconfigurable architecture; Compute in memory; neural network
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c03169

The deluge of sensors and data generating devices has driven a paradigm shift in modern computing from arithmetic-logic centric to data-centric processing. Data-centric processing require innovations at the device level to enable novel compute-in-memory (CIM) operations. A key challenge in the construction of CIM architectures is the conflicting trade-off between the performance and their flexibility for various essential data operations. Here, we present a transistor-free CIM architecture that permits storage, search, and neural network operations on sub-50 nm thick Aluminum Scandium Nitride ferroelectric diodes (FeDs). Our circuit designs and devices can be directly integrated on top of Silicon microprocessors in a scalable process. By leveraging the field-programmability, nonvolatility, and nonlinearity of FeDs, search operations are demonstrated with a cell footprint <0.12 μm2 when projected onto 45 nm node technology. We further demonstrate neural network operations with 4-bit operation using FeDs. Our results highlight FeDs as candidates for efficient and multifunctional CIM platforms.