The generation of true random numbers is one of the most important tasks in a hardware security module (HSM), particularly for cryptography applications. The stochastic behavior of electronic devices can be used to generate random numbers. In this paper, a reliable neuromorphic true random number generator (TRNG) relying on stochastic switching of the magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) in the subcritical current regime is proposed. Thanks to the efficient structure of the proposed design as well as the fascinating features of the MTJs and carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNTFET), the proposed TRNG consumes low power. Moreover, the neuromorphic structure of the proposed design leads to variation tolerance and guarantees the truly random number generation even in the presence of the process variations. HSPICE simulations verify the functionality of the proposed TRNG. Furthermore, by considering the corners of the fabrication process, the randomness of the bitstream, generated by the proposed TRNG, is validated by the statistical randomness test provided by the U.S National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

In this paper, a novel graphenebased optical MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical systems) accelerometer sensor is proposed which is relied on unique properties of graphene and wavelength modulation mechanism. The optical sensing system of the designed sensor includes a typical LED light source, a multilayer graphene finger, Photo-Detector (PD), and a set of integrated optical waveguides. The functional characteristics of the sensor are designed analytically and are then confirmed using numerical approaches. These characteristics of the mentioned sensor based on simulation results are as follows: optical sensitivity of 0.2111 nm/g, a linear measurement range of -189 g to +189g, a mechanical sensitivity of 0.4617 nm/g, a first resonance frequency of 23032 Hz, a bandwidth of about 8 kHz. The proposed MOEMS (Micro-Opto-Electro-Mechanical Systems) sensor offers several advantages, such as zero crossaxis sensitivity, a remarkably broad operational bandwidth, appropriate linearity behavior in the whole measurement range, intrinsic immunity against electromagnetic interferences (EMI), high reliability and a significantly wider measurement range (MR), when compared with recent important contributions in the literature. These functional characteristics make the proposed optical sensor very interesting in various applications, ranging from consumer electronics to volcanology and earthquake detection, automotive and inertial navigation. Especially the applications which extremely broad measurement range, high sensitivity, operating in a harsh environment and wide operational bandwidth are required simultaneously.

Reduction of leakage power and vulnerability to radiation are of critical challenges in modern nanometer CMOS technologies because of scaling down requirement. Spintronic logic has been progressed to realize these demands based on magnetic-based elements properties especially magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) such as radiation-hardened, non-volatility, and CMOS process compatibility. A novel soft-error tolerant and highly reliable latch circuit is proposed in this paper which is a promising choice for reliable and low-power architectures. Furthermore, employing the proposed shadow latch based on MTJ cells as a backup structure along with the rad-hard main latch is aimed to the realization of a nonvolatile and SEU-immune flip-flop which is applicable in next-generation CMOS circuits. Simulations of proposed circuits have been performed by SPICE tool and a 45nm CMOS technology model to evaluate the effectiveness of topologies.

Many advances have been made in developing bio-inspired intelligent systems for performing important tasks like pattern association, which cannot be performed effectively by the conventional computer architectures. This paper presents a novel nonvolatile associative memory based on spintronic synapses utilizing magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) and carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNTFET)-based neurons. MTJs introduce fascinating features like reconfigurability, nonvolatility, and high endurance to the design, while CNTFETs compensate for the flaws of the conventional transistors in deep nanoscale nodes. The comprehensive simulations validate the functionality of the proposed synaptic cell, and neuron, even in the presence of major process variations. The application of the proposed synaptic cell and neuron in the hardware realization of multi-associative memories is also investigated. The simulation results indicate that the proposed hardware-based multi-associative memory performs similar to its ideal software-based counterpart with a less than 5% difference in the successful recall rate. The proposed multi-associative memory can be used as a neural network hardware accelerator alongside a conventional computing system with no need for any extra component, since its input and output are logical ‘0’ and ‘1’.

Bio-inspired computing attempts to emulate the computations performed by biological neural networks like human's brain to benefit from their efficiencies like flexibility, parallel processing, and most importantly learning capability. This letter proposes a fully nonvolatile spin-based synapse utilizing magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) and carbon nanotube field-effect transistor (CNTFET). The proposed synapse benefits from fascinating features of MTJs like nonvolatility, high endurance, and reconfigurability. Furthermore, the excellent features of CNTFET are utilized to streamline the design. The functionality and characteristic of the proposed synapse in the inevitable presence of process variations are validated using Monte Carlo simulations. Moreover, a hardware associative memory is implemented using the proposed spin-based synapse. The simulation results indicate that the associative memory realized by the proposed synapse performs very similar to its ideal software-based counterpart with 8.02% difference in the successful recall rate.

Radiation vulnerability and high power density are critical challenges in modern CMOS processors. Spin-based devices like magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) are among the promising alternatives for addressing these challenges thanks to their fascinating properties such as radiation immunity, non-volatility, high endurance, and compatibility with the CMOS fabrication process. Utilizing the fascinating non-volatile property of the MTJ device, a high-performance, and energy-efficient soft error immune retention latch, and a high-reliable non-volatile flip-flop (FF) are proposed in this paper. Thanks to the single event upset (SEU) immunity, the proposed circuits are applicable in designing highly reliable processors, especially in applications like aerospace systems, where immunity to radiation induced soft errors is very critical. Because of the innovative design of the proposed approach, the MTJ switching delay does not affect the performance of the proposed latch. The simulation results indicate that the proposed latch offers lower delay, power consumption, and power delay product (PDP) than the state-of-the-art designs. The results of the comprehensive Monte-Carlo simulations also demonstrate that the proposed approach is more robust to process, voltage, and temperature variations as compared to their previous counterparts. This is because our designs do not use a pre-charge sense amplifier (PCSA) to read the data stored in the MTJs, and hence, the proposed designs have lower error rates. Furthermore, the transient impact of the particle strikes on the internal nodes is not transferred to the output node of the proposed circuits. The proposed design also has a significantly shorter output recovery time compared to its state-of-the-art counterparts.