QCA
Key advantages
Very low power
Key disadvantage
No gain.
Input not isolated from output
Quantum Dots
• In order to implement a system that encodes information in the form of
electron position it becomes necessary to construct a vessel in which an
electron can be trapped and "counted" as there or not there.
• A quantum dot does just this by establishing a region of low potential
surrounded by a ring of high potential.
• Such rings are able to trap electrons of sufficiently low energies/temperature
and are sometimes called potential wells.
• There are several ways to implement quantum dots but apparently the most
common, and the ones used in [1] are metal.
• Nanometer-scale dots are constructed from Aluminum using electron beam
lithography techniques.
QUANTUM DOTS
• The logic unit in QCA is the QCA cell which was proposed by researchers at the
University of Notre Dame.
• The QCA cell is composed of 4 or 5 quantum dots.
• A quantum dot is a nanometer sized structure that is capable of trapping
electrons in three dimensions.
• Quantum dots are made by creating an island of conductive material
surrounded by insulating material.
• Electrons that enter the quantum dot will be confined because of the high
potential required to escape.
• Producing dots of small positional and size variability usually involves the use of
electron beam lithography, which is similar to conventional lithography except that
patterns are traced out using an electron beam rather then using a mask and light.
• Conventional lithography is not capable of creating devices at that scale since the
wavelength of light used is greater then the required feature size.
• The image below shows three different quantum dot structures:
• As we can see the shape of a quantum dot is not necessarily round and varies
depending on the process and application.
QCA – The Four Dot Device
• Uses electrons in cells to store and transmit data
– Electrons move between different positions via electron tunneling
• Logic functions performed by Coulombic interactions
Cellular Automata
• 2 extra electrons are introduced
to the quantum cell Quantum Cell
• Electrons have the ability to
tunnel from one quantum dot to e- e-
the next
• Repelling force of electrons
moves the charge to opposite
corners of the quantum cell, binary 10
resulting in two possible
arrangements, representing
binary 0 and 1
e- e-
• Lent and Porod of Notre Dame proposed a wireless two-state quantum
dot device called a “cell”
– Each cell consists of 5 quantum dots and two electrons
e e
e e
State “1” State “0”
Five dot Model
• Very similar to four-dot model
• The two electrons repel each other, causing them
to move to opposite corners of the device
• This yields two states of equal energy in the cell
e e
e e
Quantum Dot Wire
• By placing two “cells” adjacent to each other
and forcing the first cell into a certain state, the
second cell will assume the same state in order
to lower its energy
The net effect is that a “1”
has moved on to the next cell
e e e
By stringing cells together in
this way, a “pseudo-
“pseudo-wire” can
e e e be made to transport a signal
In contrast to a real wire,
however, no current flows
Quantum Cellular Automata: A four-
four-dot model
• Basic cell: four quantum dots connected by tunnel junctions
– Can control voltage of tunnel junctions to freeze state of device
• Allows clocking
• Add two excess electrons to cell to contain state
– Repulsion between electrons will push them to opposite corners
– One configuration indicates 0, the other 1
• Capacitatively-coupled gates allow electrons to be forced into one configuration or
the other
• Capacitatively-coupled electrometers allow position of electrons, and thus bit
state, to be read
0
1
complete geometrical-
geometrical-logical system for QD
Other QCA Structures--
Structures--
Wires
• 90-degree wire
• 45-degree wire
– Normal and inverted signal available on the same wire
Quantum Dot Inverter
• Two cells that are off center will
invert a signal
out
in
out
in
out
in
Quantum Dot Majority Gate
• Logic gates can be constructed with quantum dot cells
– The basic logic gate for a quantum dot cell is the majority gate
in in
in out in out
in in
QCA – The Circuit
• Fundamental circuit is shown above
– This is a 90-degree wire
– 45-degree wires can also be constructed
• Binary value alternates between polarization +1 and –1 as it travels
down the wire
• Ripper cells can be placed to get the actual binary value or
complemented value from the wire
Basic QCA Gate – Majority
Input A
Input B
Output
• Input C
• Can be used to implement AND, OR by setting
one input to 0, 1
Special cases of Majority
AND Gate (Program Line = 0)
Program Line A B OUT
1 1 1
1 0 0
0 0 1 0
0 0 0
Input A 1 1 1 Output
*by simply changing the
1 program line to 1, the
device is transformed to
an OR gate
Input B
0,0,10
Majority 0,0,1
Input A0
Input B 00 0
Output
1
• Input C
Stronger wins!
0,1,11
Majority 0,1,1
0
10 1
1
0,0,00
Majority 0,0,0
0
00 0
0
Quantum Dot Logic Gates that use NOT
• AND, OR, NAND, etc can be formed from the NOT and
the MAJ gates 0
0 0
1 0 1
A nand B
A A and B A
1
1
0
B 1 1 B
A A or B
0
B
QCA Circuits QCA Circuits
• 1 -Bit Full Adder (Lent, et al, 1994) Bit Full Adder (Lent,
et al, 1994)
• For a dot size of 10 nm, area For a dot size of 10 nm, area
required is less than 1.5 µm2 and replaces about 30
transistors
• Very Low Power
• No power is directly supplied to the interior of the array
the interior of the array
• Theoretical Switching Frequency in THz range!!!
• Possible Research Projects:
• adaptation of DDs
• adaptation of Lattices
• adaptation of PLAs
• adaptation of FPGA structures
• adaptation of Net Structures
• reversibility
• Reversible CA
•Universal CA, life, reproduction,
Billiard Ball model
• pipelined, systolic, etc.
• Three - dimensional?
Summary
•Nano device based gates consume ultra low power
• Switches with very high speed.
• Less no of transistors.
• ULSI technology can be realized with
Nano Electronic devices based logic system.
