An Efficient Ultra-Low-Power and Superior Performance Design of Ternary Half Adder Using CNFET and Gate-Overlap TFET Devices

Abstract

This paper presents a novel ultra-low power yet high-performance device and circuit design paradigm for implementing ternary logic based circuits using Gate-Overlap Tunnel FETs (GOTFETs) and Carbon Nanotube FETs (CNFETs). One of the distinguishing novelty reported in this work is the introduction of an innovative GOTFET device, which exhibits more than double the on-currents <inline-formula><tex-math notation= LaTeX >$I_{on}$</tex-math></inline-formula> and less than 1/10^th the off-currents <inline-formula><tex-math notation= LaTeX >$I_{off}$</tex-math></inline-formula> of equivalent, equally-sized <sc>mosfet</sc>s at the same technology node. Most of the ternary logic designs reported earlier in the literature encode ternary bits into binary for combinational functionality and then use an Encoder to get back ternary output. Unlike the earlier designs, this paper presents a novel and significantly more efficient approach of directly designing ternary logical functions with Low <inline-formula><tex-math notation= LaTeX >$V_{t}$</tex-math></inline-formula> Transistors (LVT) and High <inline-formula><tex-math notation= LaTeX >$V_{t}$</tex-math></inline-formula> Transistors (HVT) using CNFET and GOTFET technologies. The new approach simplifies the design and reduces the required transistor count & interconnects, thereby reducing the delays and power consumption. The proposed Ternary Half Adder (THA) circuit, designed using CMOS, enables a 52% reduction in transistor count compared to the conventional CMOS designs available in the literature. The THA implemented with CNFET exhibits 27\xa0ps (87% lower delay than similar CMOS design and consumes 2.4\xa0<inline-formula><tex-math notation= LaTeX >$\\mu$</tex-math></inline-formula>W power (11% lower than CMOS). On the other hand, CGOT THA exhibits 101\xa0ps (51% lower delay than similar CMOS design) and consumes merely 1.26\xa0<inline-formula><tex-math notation= LaTeX >$\\mu$</tex-math></inline-formula>W power (53% lower than CMOS, in ultra-low power regime). The overall decrease in the Power Delay Products (PDPs) are 88% and 77%, respectively, in the proposed CNFET and CGOT THA circuits compared to the CMOS THA.