Arrays of Carbon Nanotubes as RF Filters in Waveguides

Brushlike arrays of carbon nanotubes embedded in microstrip waveguides provide highly efficient (high-Q) mechanical resonators that will enable ultraminiature radio-frequency (RF) integrated circuits. In its basic form, this invention is an RF filter based on a carbon nanotube array embedded in a microstrip (or coplanar) waveguide, as shown in Figure 1. In addition, arrays of these nanotube-based RF filters can be used as an RF filter bank. Applications of this new nanotube array device include a variety of communications and signal-processing technologies. High-Q resonators are essential for stable, low-noise communications, and radar applications. Mechanical oscillators can exhibit orders of magnitude higher Qs than electronic resonant circuits, which are limited by resistive losses. This has motivated the development of a variety of mechanical resonators, including bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonators, surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators, and Si and SiC micromachined resonators (known as microelectromechanical systems or MEMS). There is also a strong push to extend the resonant frequencies of these oscillators into the GHz regime of state-of-the-art electronics. Unfortunately, the BAW and SAW devices tend to be large and are not easily integrated into electronic circuits. MEMS structures have been integrated into circuits, but efforts to extend MEMS resonant frequencies into the GHz regime have been difficult because of scaling problems with the capacitively-coupled drive and readout. In contrast, the proposed devices would be much smaller and hence could be more readily incorporated into advanced RF (more specifically, microwave) integrated circuits

NASA Tech Briefs, April 2003

Topics include: Tool for Bending a Metal Tube Precisely in a Confined Space; Multiple-Use Mechanisms for Attachment to Seat Tracks; Force-Measuring Clamps; Cellular Pressure-Actuated Joint; Block QCA Fault-Tolerant Logic Gates; Hybrid VLSI/QCA Architecture for Computing FFTs; Arrays of Carbon Nanotubes as RF Filters in Waveguides; Carbon Nanotubes as Resonators for RF Spectrum Analyzers; Software for Viewing Landsat Mosaic Images; Updated Integrated Mission Program; Software for Sharing and Management of Information; Optical-Quality Thin Polymer Membranes; Rollable Thin Shell Composite-Material Paraboloidal Mirrors; Folded Resonant Horns for Power Ultrasonic Applications; Touchdown Ball-Bearing System for Magnetic Bearings; Flux-Based Deadbeat Control of Induction-Motor Torque; Block Copolymers as Templates for Arrays of Carbon Nanotubes; Throttling Cryogen Boiloff To Control Cryostat Temperature; Collaborative Software Development Approach Used to Deliver the New Shuttle Telemetry Ground Station; Turbulence in Supercritical O2/H2 and C7H16/N2 Mixing Layers; and Time-Resolved Measurements in Optoelectronic Microbioanal

Block QCA Fault-Tolerant Logic Gates

Suitably patterned arrays (blocks) of quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) have been proposed as fault-tolerant universal logic gates. These block QCA gates could be used to realize the potential of QCA for further miniaturization, reduction of power consumption, increase in switching speed, and increased degree of integration of very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) electronic circuits. The limitations of conventional VLSI circuitry, the basic principle of operation of QCA, and the potential advantages of QCA-based VLSI circuitry were described in several NASA Tech Briefs articles, namely Implementing Permutation Matrices by Use of Quantum Dots (NPO-20801), Vol. 25, No. 10 (October 2001), page 42; Compact Interconnection Networks Based on Quantum Dots (NPO-20855) Vol. 27, No. 1 (January 2003), page 32; Bit-Serial Adder Based on Quantum Dots (NPO-20869), Vol. 27, No. 1 (January 2003), page 35; and Hybrid VLSI/QCA Architecture for Computing FFTs (NPO-20923), which follows this article. To recapitulate the principle of operation (greatly oversimplified because of the limitation on space available for this article): A quantum-dot cellular automata contains four quantum dots positioned at or between the corners of a square cell. The cell contains two extra mobile electrons that can tunnel (in the quantummechanical sense) between neighboring dots within the cell. The Coulomb repulsion between the two electrons tends to make them occupy antipodal dots in the cell. For an isolated cell, there are two energetically equivalent arrangements (denoted polarization states) of the extra electrons. The cell polarization is used to encode binary information. Because the polarization of a nonisolated cell depends on Coulomb-repulsion interactions with neighboring cells, universal logic gates and binary wires could be constructed, in principle, by arraying QCA of suitable design in suitable patterns. Heretofore, researchers have recognized two major obstacles to realization of QCA-based logic gates: One is the need for (and the difficulty of attaining) operation of QCA circuitry at room temperature or, for that matter, at any temperature above a few Kelvins. It has been theorized that room-temperature operation could be made possible by constructing QCA as molecular-scale devices. However, in approaching the lower limit of miniaturization at the molecular level, it becomes increasingly imperative to overcome the second major obstacle, which is the need for (and the difficulty of attaining) high precision in the alignments of adjacent QCA in order to ensure the correct interactions among the quantum dots

Quantum-dot Cellular Automata: Review Paper

Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) is one of the most important discoveries that will be the successful alternative for CMOS technology in the near future. An important feature of this technique, which has attracted the attention of many researchers, is that it is characterized by its low energy consumption, high speed and small size compared with CMOS.  Inverter and majority gate are the basic building blocks for QCA circuits where it can design the most logical circuit using these gates with help of QCA wire. Due to the lack of availability of review papers, this paper will be a destination for many people who are interested in the QCA field and to know how it works and why it had taken lots of attention recentl

Using assessment data to support the learning of young pupils in four Kent primary schools

This thesis discusses how assessment data are used to support the learning of pupils aged four to seven years in four Kent primary schools. The sample was 451 pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2; the researcher collected and analysed quantitative data from pupil attainment on school entry – either as Baseline Assessment or the Foundation Stage Profile – and from results in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of KS1, both as SATs and Teacher Assessment. These data were triangulated with qualitative data collected from a semi-structured questionnaire, classroom observations and interviews with the Reception class practitioners. The author – a head teacher with many years’ experience of primary schools and the Early Years – outlines recent and current government policy and links these to assessment theory and existing practice in the four schools studied. She identifies some possible influences on attainment and looks at how value-added data are currently used as measures of pupil performance. The three research questions look at whether benchmark data can be used to predict future achievement, the educational implications of using value-added data as measures of pupil performance, and whether benchmark data can be used to support learning in the primary classroom. The findings led the researcher to conclude that accurate prediction from prior attainment is not possible at the present time and that contextual value-added data are only useful when other variables are taken into account. However, the findings showed that benchmark data – when used formatively – can be useful in supporting pupils’ learning. This study will help head teacher colleagues to look at data in a fresh way, and to identify and target the needs of individual pupils to optimise their performance from the beginning of the Foundation Stage to the end of Key Stage One

Exploration of Majority Logic Based Designs for Arithmetic Circuits

Since its inception, Moore\u27s Law has been a reliable predictor of computational power. This steady increase in computational power has been due to the ability to fit increasing numbers of transistors in a single chip. A consequence of increasing the number of transistors is also increasing the power consumption. The physical properties of CMOS technologies will make this powerwall unavoidable and will result in severe restrictions to future progress and applications. A potential solution to the problem of rising power demands is to investigate alternative low power nanotechnologies for implementing logic circuits. The intrinsic properties of these emerging nanotechnologies result in them being low power in nature when compared to current CMOS technologies. This thesis specifically highlights quantum dot celluar automata (QCA) and nanomagnetic logic (NML) as just two possible technologies. Designs in NML and QCA are explored for simple arithmetic units such as full adders and subtractors. A new multilayer 5-input majority gate design is proposed for use in NML. Designs of reversible adders are proposed which are easily testable for unidirectional stuck at faults

SCERPA Simulation of Clocked Molecular Field-Coupling Nanocomputing

Among all the possible technologies proposed for post-CMOS computing, molecular field-coupled nanocomputing (FCN) is one of the most promising technologies. The information propagation relies on electrostatic interactions among single molecules, overcoming the need for electron transport, significantly reducing energy dissipation. The expected working frequency is very high, and high throughput may be achieved by introducing an efficient pipeline of information propagation. The pipeline could be realized by adding an external clock signal that controls the propagation of data and makes the transmission adiabatic. In this article, we extend the Self-Consistent Electrostatic Potential Algorithm (SCERPA), previously introduced to analyze molecular circuits with a uniform clock field, to clocked molecular devices. The single-molecule is analyzed by ab initio calculations and modeled as an electronic device. Several clocked devices have been partitioned into clock zones and analyzed: the binary wire, the bus, the inverter, and the majority voter. The proposed modification of SCERPA enables linking the functional behavior of the clocked devices to molecular physics, becoming a possible tool for the eventual physical design verification of emerging FCN devices. The algorithm provides some first quantitative results that highlight the clocked propagation characteristics and provide significant feedback for the future implementation of molecular FCN circuits