Compact low-power instant store and restore D flip-flop using a selfcomplementing spintronic device

To simplify power-gating requirements in ultra-low-power architectures, design strategies for low-power non-volatile flip-flops (F/Fs) are sought, for which the utilisation of spintronic devices offers a promising option. A D F/F that utilises a five-terminal spintronic device for non-volatile state holding in an intrinsically self-complementing fashion is introduced. This self-complementing device can be exploited to reduce overhead interfacing circuitry in order to realise a compact ten transistors with one spintronic device D F/F with instant store and restore functionality, while consuming <9 μW of power.