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EP-4315191-B1 - INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS

EP4315191B1EP 4315191 B1EP4315191 B1EP 4315191B1EP-4315191-B1

Inventors

  • Virnau, Peter
  • Kläui, Mathias
  • Brems, Maarten

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20220324

Claims (15)

  1. Apparatus (12) for processing information by evaluating randomly moving tokens corresponding to particles or quasi particles, comprising: an input interface (20) for receiving an input signal; a carrier (22) for supporting a plurality of pathways (30) for the randomly moving tokens and at least one join (32) for connecting two pathways and for permitting a passing of a first token in a first pathway of the two connected pathways through the join upon presence of a second token from a second pathway of the two connected pathways in the join; an insertion unit (24) for inserting tokens into the pathways based on the input signal; an excitation unit (26) for applying a stimulus to a token in at least one pathway of the plurality of pathways, said stimulus acting to increase the random movement of the token in a direction substantially parallel to the carrier; and an output unit (28) for providing an output signal based on a location of at least one token after a predefined or dynamically adjusted time period.
  2. Apparatus (12) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to evaluate particles or quasi particles exhibiting a Brownian diffusive motion as tokens, in particular magnetic skyrmions.
  3. Apparatus (12) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the excitation unit (26) includes a pulse unit (54) for applying an electric current to the carrier (22) and/or to at least one pathway of the plurality of pathways (30); and the carrier preferably includes a layer of a conductive material (56) enabling a spin torque effect, in particular a spin-orbit torque effect, to which the electric current is applied.
  4. Apparatus (12) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the excitation unit (26) includes a magnetic field unit (58) for applying a magnetic field or magnetic field gradient to the carrier (22); and said magnetic field unit preferably includes at least two coils arranged on different sides of the carrier.
  5. Apparatus (12) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the excitation unit (26) includes an electric field unit (62) for applying an electric field to the carrier (22); and the carrier includes an electrically insulating layer (60) for propagating the electric field, preferably a layer of a high-k dielectric material.
  6. Apparatus (12) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the excitation unit (26) includes an electromagnetic field unit (64) for generating a high-frequency electromagnetic field; and said electromagnetic field unit preferably includes an antenna.
  7. Apparatus (12) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the output unit (28) includes a magnetic sensor (38) for detecting a change in magnetization or in a magnetic field in an output position (36) on the carrier (22).
  8. Apparatus (12) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the output unit (28) is configured to periodically determine whether a token is in an output position (36) on the carrier (22).
  9. Apparatus (12) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the carrier (22) includes a multi-layer thin film system (50) arranged on a semiconductor wafer (52), said wafer preferably including an insulating top layer, said thin film system preferably including a magnetized material; and the pathways (30) and the at least one join (32) are preferably manufactured in the multi-layer thin film system in an etching and/or lithography process.
  10. Apparatus (12) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the insertion unit (24) includes a nucleation unit (25) for nucleating a token in an input position (34) connected to a pathway (30).
  11. Apparatus (12) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the input interface (20) is configured to receive the input signal from a sensor (14).
  12. Apparatus (12) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the input interface (20) is configured to receive a stimulus signal; the excitation unit (26) is configured to apply the stimulus based on the stimulus signal; and the excitation unit is preferably configured to adapt a strength of the stimulus based on the stimulus signal.
  13. Apparatus (12) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the excitation unit (26) is configured to apply the stimulus based on an amount of energy in an energy supply (18) connected to an energy harvesting unit (16) for generating electric energy from an environment.
  14. Sensor system (10) for detecting a physical phenomenon in an environment, comprising: an apparatus (12) as defined in any one of the preceding claims; and a sensor (14) for generating the input signal based on the physical phenomenon in the environment.
  15. Sensor system (10) as claimed in claim 14 including an energy harvesting unit (16) for generating electric energy from the environment.

Description

The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing information by evaluating randomly moving tokens corresponding to particles or quasiparticles. The present invention further relates to microelectronic systems that require information processing, such as a sensor system for detecting a physical phenomenon in an environment. Thermal fluctuations are increasingly relevant in modern digital electronic computers due to the ongoing miniaturization of computing devices. Scaling down the size of these devices and circuits the relevant energy scale for computing becomes comparable to the one of thermal fluctuations so that a deterministic behavior is no longer guaranteed. Traditional strategies to counter the effects of thermal fluctuations like noise suppression or error correction come at the price of larger devices, strong limitations to the computation speed and higher power consumption. Therefore, non-conventional computing schemes with novel methods to circumvent these problems have gained interest in recent years. One approach in this respect is the so-called token-based computing. A token is a discrete signal carrier which moves through a circuit with special transition rules to perform a calculation. In Brownian computing this movement originates from the stochastic Brownian motion of particles or quasi particles due to thermal fluctuations. One advantage of this Brownian or token-based computing is the low power consumption. It becomes possible to process information even if only a very small amount of power is available. This is particularly interesting for application scenarios that rely on energy harvesting for self-sufficient operation. Potential scenarios include monitoring applications in which a sensor measures a quantity and acts upon a change in this quantity. For instance, a room climate monitoring could make use of such a processing apparatus. A promising candidate for tokens are magnetic skyrmions. These topologically stabilized magnetic whirls exhibit quasi-particle behavior and have recently proven to exhibit thermal diffusion at room temperature. In this context, Jibiki et al. "Skyrmion Brownian circuit implemented in continuous ferromagnetic thin film", 2019, relates to ultra-low power Brownian computers. In particular, a skyrmion Brownian circuit is disclosed that has been implemented in a continuous ferromagnetic film with a patterned SiO2 capping to stabilize the skyrmion formation. The patterned SiO2 capping controls the saturation field of the ferromagnetic layer and forms a wire-shaped skyrmion potential well, which stabilizes skyrmion formation in the circuit. Moreover, using this patterned SiO2 capping, a Y-junction hub circuit is implemented exhibiting no significant pinning site at the junction, contrary to conventional etched hubs. An efficient control of skyrmion-based memory and logic devices to move closer toward the realization of Brownian computers is disclosed. Lee et al. "Brownian Circuits: Designs", 2016, discusses Brownian circuits with decreased complexity and shows designs of circuits with functionalities like counting, testing of conditional statements, memory and arbitration of shared resources. Further, the potential of Brownian circuits for implementations by Single Electron Tunneling technology is discussed. In Nozaki et al. "Brownian motion of skyrmion bubbles and its control by voltage applications", 2018 the dynamics of skyrmion bubbles in W/FeB/Ir/MgO structures are investigated with the aim of employing the thermally activated random walk of skyrmion bubbles for logical operations, i.e., token-based Brownian computing. In addition to the observation of Brownian motion of skyrmion bubbles, the electrical control of the diffusion constant by voltage applications is demonstrated. The developed technique would be useful for various kinds of skyrmion-based spintronic devices as well as Brownian computing. In Sanz-Hernández et al. "Fabrication, Detection, and Operation of a Three-Dimensional Nanomagnetic Conduit", 2017, a 3D nanomagnetic system created by 3D nanoprinting and physical vapor deposition, which acts as a conduit for domain walls, is demonstrated. Domains formed at the substrate level are injected into a 3D nanowire, where they are controllably trapped using vectorial magnetic fields. A dark-field magneto-optical method for parallel, independent measurement of different regions in individual 3D nanostructures is also demonstrated. One drawback of Brownian or token-based computing approaches is that the information processing depends on the movement of the particles or quasiparticles. On the one hand, this can lead to a slow processing, which impedes an application in areas that require a certain calculation speed. Even for rather simple circuits such as a half-adder, simulations show that mean calculation times can be on the order of several minutes for a single operation. On the other hand, the exploitation of thermal fluctuations and/or ra