Modeling of Spin-Based Silicon Technology

Abstract—Electron spin attracts much attention as an alternative degree of freedom for low-power reprogrammable logic and non-volatile memory applications. Silicon appears to be the perfect material for spin-driven applications. Recent progress and challenges in simulating spin-based devices are briefly reviewed. Strain-induced enhancement of the electron spin lifetime in silicon thin films is predicted and its impact on spin transport in SpinFETs is discussed. A new design of the spin-based non-volatile memory cell, MRAM, is presented. By means of micromagnetic simulations it is demonstrated that the new design leads to a reduction of the switching time of the cell. Any two memory cells from a MRAM array can form an implication logic gate. It is shown how by using these gates an intrinsic non-volatile logic-in-memory architecture is realized. Index Terms—silicon spintronics, spin transport, SpinFET, spin-based memory, spin-based logic I