Electronic ratchet: A non-equilibrium, low power switch

In this paper, we present a novel computing paradigm using a non-equilibrium electronic ratchet which is capable of driving current in the absence of an applied drain bias. By using a time varying, spatially asymmetric potential, we demonstrate that it is possible to create a net current from drift-diffusion processes of charge carriers. This is especially useful in reducing static dissipation encountered in conventional logic circuits. In addition, since the electronic ratchet acts as voltage-controlled current source, we find that the dynamic dissipation associated with charging/discharging of load capacitors is also decreased. Furthermore, we show that the ratchet device is naturally amenable to a dissipation reduction technique known as adiabatic clocking. Because of the unique charging mechanism of the ratchet, timing constraints on logic inputs-an important drawback of conventional adiabatic circuits-are not needed to achieve adiabatic computation.