Field-coupled Nanocomputing (FCN)
Date:
In this guest lecture in the graduate course Emerging Computer Technologies at Johannes Kepler University Linz, I gave an introduction to Field-coupled Nanocomputing (FCN) technologies and concepts. This promising class of post-CMOS devices has the potential for highest processing performance with tremendously low energy dissipation. At the same time, physical design of these nano-structures imposes hard challenges, even compared to classical CMOS layout.
I gave an overview about general concepts of two representative technological implementations, namely Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) and Nanomagnet Logic (NML). The students learned about the physical background, ramifications in the design process and how to takle them, and even hand-designed their own circuit descriptions in the process.