Novel latch for adiabatic quantum-flux-parametron logic

We herein propose the quantum-flux-latch (QFL) as a novel latch for adiabatic quantum-flux-parametron (AQFP) logic. A QFL is very compact and compatible with AQFP logic gates and can be read out in one clock cycle. Simulation results revealed that the QFL operates at 5GHz with wide parameter margins of more than +/- 22%. The calculated energy dissipation was only similar to 0.1 aJ/bit, which yields a small energy delay product of 20 aJ.ps. We also designed shift registers using QFLs to demonstrate more complex circuits with QFLs. Finally, we experimentally demonstrated correct operations of the QFL and a 1-bit shift register (a D flip-flop). (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.