Evaluating Positive Feedback Adiabatic Logic in 16nm FinFET with a Realistic Power-Clock

Abstract

Adiabatic logic reuses the energy stored on load capacitances through quasi-reversible switching, enabling a lower minimum energy consumption than conventional static CMOS. Yet its practicality in FinFET technologies and at multi-GHz clock rates has yet to be investigated. This work provides a systematic evaluation of Positive Feedback Adiabatic Logic (PFAL) simulated in the TSMC 16nm FinFET process. A set of PFAL standard-cell gates were realised, along with two representative combinational circuits - a 2$\times$2 multiplier and a 4-bit comparator - and compared against static CMOS logic using the energy--delay product (EDP) and the energy advantage metric $η= E_{\mathrm{CMOS}} / E_{\mathrm{PFAL}}$. Transient simulations reveal three sources of non-adiabatic loss: two specific to the PMOS/NMOS latch, threshold-voltage-related loss and a previously unreported redundant charging of the output node and one related to the complexity of PFAL logic trees. The low-threshold Buffer/NOT cell achieves a minimum EDP of $1.23\times10^{-26}$J$\cdot$s at $V_{\mathrm{CLK}} = 0.6$V and $f_{\mathrm{CLK}} = 7.94$GHz, while PFAL preserves an energy benefit over static CMOS of up to roughly $5\times$ at reduced frequencies and elevated supply voltages. A parallel-coupled quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator is designed as a realistic four-phase power-clock generator. With this non-ideal supply, the Buffer/NOT energy stays within $2\%$ of the ideal sinusoidal case at $3$GHz. A loading study quantifies the phase shift and amplitude reduction induced by increasing fan-out. Overall, the results provide a design-oriented evaluation of PFAL in 16nm FinFET and a motivation to exploit adiabatic logic for future low-power system architectures.