Effect of Body Biasing on the Energy-Delay Performance of Logic Relays

The effect of the body bias voltage on logic relay performance is investigated. The switching hysteresis voltage, which sets a lower limit for the relay operating voltage, is experimentally found to decrease with increasing body bias voltage, due to reduced surface adhesive force. It is demonstrated that the switching energy of a relay can be reduced by body biasing, at a tradeoff of increased mechanical turn-ON delay. Simulations of nanoscale relay designs indicate that body biasing can be used to mitigate relay manufacturing challenges, while enabling ultralow-voltage (sub-100 mV) operation with relatively fast switching speed.