Spin Orbit Torque Non-Volatile Flip-Flop for High Speed and Low Energy Applications

A novel nonvolatile flip-flop based on spin-orbit torque magnetic tunnel junctions (SOT-MTJs) is proposed for fast and ultralow energy applications. A case study of this nonvolatile flip-flop is considered. In addition to the independence between writing and reading paths, which offers a high reliability, the low resistive writing path performs high-speed, and energy-efficient WRITE operation. We compare the SOT-MTJ performances metrics with the spin transfer torque (STT)-MTJ. Based on accurate compact models, simulation results show an improvement, which attains 20x in terms of WRITE energy per bit cell. At the same writing current and supply voltage, the SOT-MTJ achieves a writing frequency 4x higher than the STT-MTJ.