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On the Tolerance to Manufacturing Defects in Molecular QCA Tiles for Processing-by-wire

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Abstract

Among emerging technologies, Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) relies on innovative computational paradigms. For nano-scale implementation, the so-called processing-by-wire (PBW) paradigm in QCA is very effective as processing takes place, while signal communication is accomplished. This paper analyzes the defect tolerance properties of PBW for manufacturing tiles by molecular QCA cells. Based on a 3 × 3 grid and various input/output arrangements in QCA cells, different tiles are analyzed and simulated using a coherence vector engine. The functional characterization and polarization level of these tiles for undeposited cell defects are reported and detailed profiles are provided. It is shown that novel features of PBW are possible due to the spatial redundancy of the cells in the tiles that permits to retain at high probability the fault free function in the presence of defects. Moreover, it is shown that QCA tiles are robust and inherently tolerant to cell defects (by logic equivalence, also additional cell defects can be accommodated).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Jing Huang, Mariam Momenzadeh & Fabrizio Lombardi

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  1. Jing Huang
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  2. Mariam Momenzadeh
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  3. Fabrizio Lombardi
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Correspondence to Jing Huang.

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Editor: M. Tehranipoor

This manuscript is an extended version of the paper by the same authors that appeared in [4].

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Huang, J., Momenzadeh, M. & Lombardi, F. On the Tolerance to Manufacturing Defects in Molecular QCA Tiles for Processing-by-wire. J Electron Test 23, 163–174 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-006-0548-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-006-0548-6

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