Multiple-Valued Logic-in-Memory VLSI Using MFSFETs and its Applications
Hiromitsu Kimura, Takahiro Hanyu and Michitaka Kameyama
A new logic-in-memory VLSI architecture using metal-ferroelectric-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MFSFETs) is proposed to solve the communication bottleneck between memory and logic modules in a single chip. Since multiple-valued stored data are represented by multi-level remnant polarization states of an MFSFET, a single MFSFET is effectively used not only as a nonvolatile multiple-valued storage element, but also as a multiple-valued threshold-literal and a pass-switch gate. As typical applications, high-performance multiple-valued content-addressable memories (CAMs) using MFSFETs are also proposed to realize highly parallel magnitude comparison between an input word and every stored word. These excellent performance is evaluated in comparison with that of a corresponding binary CMOS implementation.