Energy-Saving Logic Gates Utilizing Coupling Phenomenon Between MIS(p) Tunneling Diodes

In this work, based on coupling mechanism between Al/SiO
₂
/Si(p) metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) tunneling diodes (TDs), a multilevel open-circuit voltage sensor was developed. With selected input voltage signals applied at several outer MIS TDs and open-circuit voltage read at inner MIS TD serving as output signal, multiple levels of
${V}_{\text {out}}$
–
${V}_{\text {in}}$
curves can be achieved. The mechanism behind this phenomenon is related to charge coupling between two adjacent MIS TDs. According to this result, a novel concept of logic gates accommodating multiple inputs and with ultralow power consumption was further proposed. Finally, a 2-D TCAD simulation was implemented to confirm our speculation and experimental result. This notion is believed to overcome the difficulties about sophisticated logic function encountered in conventional CMOS circuit and be extremely conducive to logic computation on electronics chip in the future.