Probabilistic Computing via Gate‐Tunable Random Telegraph Noise

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although probabilistic computing offers a route to quantum‐inspired optimization at room temperature, existing probabilistic bits (p‐bits) often depend on non‐CMOS devices or circuit‐intensive randomness. Here, we report a CMOS‐compatible p‐bit that harnesses intrinsic random telegraph noise (RTN) in a fully depleted silicon‐on‐insulator field‐effect transistor to produce stochastic binary outputs with direct gate‐voltage control. The capture and emission dynamics follow Shockley–Read–Hall (SRH) kinetics, yielding a quantitative sigmoid bias‐to‐probability transfer, and the dwell‐time statistics exhibit Poisson behavior consistent with memoryless switching. Pairwise statistical independence between independently measured RTN streams is supported through probabilistic Boolean operations and cross‐correlation analysis. Using the experimentally derived RTN probability response, we perform an RTN‐derived numerical emulation of simulated annealing for the two‐dimensional hydrophobic–polar protein‐folding benchmark, reaching low‐energy configurations with fewer stochastic update iterations than the number of candidate conformations evaluated by exhaustive enumeration. We further map the same update pipeline into a digital logic design using integer energy evaluation and lookup‐table probability mapping, providing a practical pathway toward CMOS‐based probabilistic accelerators. Collectively, these results elevate intrinsic transistor noise from an unwanted artifact to a gate‐tunable, CMOS‐compatible stochastic primitive, providing a physically grounded pathway toward CMOS‐based probabilistic processors.