DESIGN OF NOVEL MULTIPLEXER CIRCUITS IN QCA NANOCOMPUTING

Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) technology is a promising alternative nano-scale technology for CMOS technology. In digital circuits, a multiplexer is one of the most important components. In this study, an efficient and single layer 2 to 1 QCA multiplexer circuit is proposed using majority gate and inverter gate. In addition, efficient 4 to 1 and 8 to 1 QCA multiplexer circuits are implemented using this 2 to 1 multiplexer circuit. The developed multiplexer circuits are implemented in QCADesigner tool. According to the results, the developed 2 to 1, 4 to 1, and 8 to 1 multiplexer circuits utilize 16 (0.01μm2), 96 (0.11μm2), and 286 (0.43μm2) QCA cell (area). The results demonstrate that the proposed 8 to 1 multiplexer circuit reduces the cost by about 25%-99% compared to the existing multiplexer circuits

An Ultra-Energy-Efficient Reversible Quantum-Dot Cellular Automata 8:1 Multiplexer Circuit

Energy efficiency considerations in terms of reduced power dissipation are a significant issue in the design of digital circuits for very large-scale integration (VLSI) systems. Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) is an emerging ultralow power dissipation approach, distinct from traditional, complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, for building digital computing circuits. Developing fully reversible QCA circuits has the potential to significantly reduce energy dissipation. Multiplexers are fundamental elements in the construction of useful digital circuits. In this paper, a novel, multilayer, fully reversible QCA 8:1 multiplexer circuit with ultralow energy dissipation is introduced. The power dissipation of the proposed multiplexer is simulated using the QCADesigner-E version 2.2 tool, describing the microscopic physical mechanisms underlying the QCA operation. The results show that the proposed reversible QCA 8:1 multiplexer consumes 89% less energy than the most energy-efficient 8:1 multiplexer circuit previously presented in the literature

SYNTHESIS OF COMPOSITE LOGIC GATE IN QCA EMBEDDING UNDERLYING REGULAR CLOCKING

Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) has emerged as one of the alternative technologies for current CMOS technology. It has the advantage of computing at a faster speed, consuming lower power, and work at Nano- Scale. Besides these advantages, QCA logic is limited to its primitive gates, majority voter and inverter only, results in limitation of cost-efficient logic circuit realization. Numerous designs have been proposed to realize various intricate logic gates in QCA at the penalty of non-uniform clocking and improper layout. This paper proposes a Composite Gate (CG) in QCA, which realizes all the essential digital logic gates such as AND, NAND, Inverter, OR, NOR, and exclusive gates like XOR and XNOR. Reportedly, the proposed design is the first of its kind to generate all basic logic in a single unit. The most striking feature of this work is the augmentation of the underlying clocking circuit with the logic block, making it a more realistic circuit. The Reliable, Efficient, and Scalable (RES) underlying regular clocking scheme is utilized to enhance the proposed design’s scalability and efficiency. The relevance of the proposed design is best cited with coplanar implementation of 2-input symmetric functions, achieving 33% gain in gate count and without any garbage output. The evaluation and analysis of dissipated energy for both the design have been carried out. The end product is verified using the QCADesigner2.0.3 simulator, and QCAPro is employed for the study of power dissipation

Implementation of Binary to Gray Code Converters in Quantum Dot Cellular Automata

Quantum dot cellular automaton (QCA) are dominant nanotechnology which has been used extensively in digital circuits and systems. It is a promising alternative to complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology with many enticing features such as high-speed, low power consumption and higher switching frequency than transistor based technology. The code converters are the basic unit for transformation of data to execute arithmetic processes. In this paper, QCA based 2-bit binary-to- gray; 3-bit binary-to-gray and 4-bit binary-to-gray code converter have been proposed. The proposed design reduces the number of cells, area and raises switching speed. The simulations are completed using QCADesigner and Microwindlite tool which is widely used for simulation and verification

Modeling, Design, and Analysis of MagnetoElastic NML Circuits

With the predicted end of CMOS scaling process, researchers started to study several alternative technologies. Among them NanoMagnet Logic (NML) offers advantages complementary to MOS transistors especially for its magnetic nature. Its intrinsic memory capability makes it suitable for zero stand-by power and logic-in-memory applications. NML requires a clock system that, if based on a magnetic field, highly increases the circuit dynamic power consumption. We have recently proposed a solution based on the magnetoelastic effect (ME-NML) [1] and on currently available fabrication processes, which drastically reduces dynamic power consumption. However, many questions still remain unanswered. Which kind of applications are best suited for this technology? How can we effectively design, analyze, and compare ME-NML circuits? Does it really offer advantages over state-of-the-art CMOS transistors? In this paper, we provide answers to all these questions and the results prove that this technology offers indeed extremely good performance. We have designed a Galois field multiplier with a systolic array structure to reduce interconnection overhead. We developed a new RTL model that allows us to easily describe and simulate circuits of any complexity, evaluating at the same time the performance and keeping into account technology constraints. We approach for the first time in the NML scenario the design of ME-NML circuits adopting the standard-cell method used in standard technologies and fulfill the design down to the physical level. The same circuit is designed also with NML technology based on magnetic fields and with a 28 nm low power CMOS bulk technology for comparison. The CMOS circuit is obtained through physical place&route with a commercial tool, providing, therefore, the most accurate comparison ever presented in literature. Power analysis shows that ME-NML circuits have a considerable advantage over both NML and state-of-the-art CMOS bulk technology. As a further by-product results clearly highlight which kind of architectures can better exploit the true potential of NML technology

An Ultra-Energy-Efficient Reversible Quantum-Dot Cellular Automata 8:1 Multiplexer Circuit

Energy efficiency considerations in terms of reduced power dissipation are a significant issue in the design of digital circuits for very large-scale integration (VLSI) systems. Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) is an emerging ultralow power dissipation approach, distinct from traditional, complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, for building digital computing circuits. Developing fully reversible QCA circuits has the potential to significantly reduce energy dissipation. Multiplexers are fundamental elements in the construction of useful digital circuits. In this paper, a novel, multilayer, fully reversible QCA 8:1 multiplexer circuit with ultralow energy dissipation is introduced. The power dissipation of the proposed multiplexer is simulated using the QCADesigner-E version 2.2 tool, describing the microscopic physical mechanisms underlying the QCA operation. The results show that the proposed reversible QCA 8:1 multiplexer consumes 89% less energy than the most energy-efficient 8:1 multiplexer circuit previously presented in the literature

Droplet Epitaxy as a Tool for the QD-Based Circuit Realization

The chapter describes a novel technology, called droplet epitaxy, in the view point of quantum-circuit realization. This technology is useful when quantum dots are to be produced, of different shape and size in various densities. There are self-assembling methods to achieve spatial ordering or spatial positioning. Out of some of the possible applications as an example, the register and cellular automata circuit will be described

Design and Investigation of Genetic Algorithmic and Reinforcement Learning Approaches to Wire Crossing Reductions for pNML Devices

Perpendicular nanomagnet logic (pNML) is an emerging post-CMOS technology which encodes binary data in the polarization of single-domain nanomagnets and performs operations via fringing field interactions. Currently, there is no complete top-down workflow for pNML. Researchers must instead simultaneously handle place-and-route, timing, and logic minimization by hand. These tasks include multiple NP-Hard subproblems, and the lack of automated tools for solving them for pNML precludes the design of large-scale pNML circuits

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationRecent breakthroughs in silicon photonics technology are enabling the integration of optical devices into silicon-based semiconductor processes. Photonics technology enables high-speed, high-bandwidth, and high-fidelity communications on the chip-scale-an important development in an increasingly communications-oriented semiconductor world. Significant developments in silicon photonic manufacturing and integration are also enabling investigations into applications beyond that of traditional telecom: sensing, filtering, signal processing, quantum technology-and even optical computing. In effect, we are now seeing a convergence of communications and computation, where the traditional roles of optics and microelectronics are becoming blurred. As the applications for opto-electronic integrated circuits (OEICs) are developed, and manufacturing capabilities expand, design support is necessary to fully exploit the potential of this optics technology. Such design support for moving beyond custom-design to automated synthesis and optimization is not well developed. Scalability requires abstractions, which in turn enables and requires the use of optimization algorithms and design methodology flows. Design automation represents an opportunity to take OEIC design to a larger scale, facilitating design-space exploration, and laying the foundation for current and future optical applications-thus fully realizing the potential of this technology. This dissertation proposes design automation for integrated optic system design. Using a buildingblock model for optical devices, we provide an EDA-inspired design flow and methodologies for optical design automation. Underlying these flows and methodologies are new supporting techniques in behavioral and physical synthesis, as well as device-resynthesis techniques for thermal-aware system integration. We also provide modeling for optical devices and determine optimization and constraint parameters that guide the automation techniques. Our techniques and methodologies are then applied to the design and optimization of optical circuits and devices. Experimental results are analyzed to evaluate their efficacy. We conclude with discussions on the contributions and limitations of the approaches in the context of optical design automation, and describe the tremendous opportunities for future research in design automation for integrated optics

The 2020 magnetism roadmap

Following the success and relevance of the 2014 and 2017 Magnetism Roadmap articles, this 2020 Magnetism Roadmap edition takes yet another timely look at newly relevant and highly active areas in magnetism research. The overall layout of this article is unchanged, given that it has proved the most appropriate way to convey the most relevant aspects of today's magnetism research in a wide variety of sub-fields to a broad readership. A different group of experts has again been selected for this article, representing both the breadth of new research areas, and the desire to incorporate different voices and viewpoints. The latter is especially relevant for thistype of article, in which one's field of expertise has to be accommodated on two printed pages only, so that personal selection preferences are naturally rather more visible than in other types of articles. Most importantly, the very relevant advances in the field of magnetism research in recent years make the publication of yet another Magnetism Roadmap a very sensible and timely endeavour, allowing its authors and readers to take another broad-based, but concise look at the most significant developments in magnetism, their precise status, their challenges, and their anticipated future developments. While many of the contributions in this 2020 Magnetism Roadmap edition have significant associations with different aspects of magnetism, the general layout can nonetheless be classified in terms of three main themes: (i) phenomena, (ii) materials and characterization, and (iii) applications and devices. While these categories are unsurprisingly rather similar to the 2017 Roadmap, the order is different, in that the 2020 Roadmap considers phenomena first, even if their occurrences are naturally very difficult to separate from the materials exhibiting such phenomena. Nonetheless, the specifically selected topics seemed to be best displayed in the order presented here, in particular, because many of the phenomena or geometries discussed in (i) can be found or designed into a large variety of materials, so that the progression of the article embarks from more general concepts to more specific classes of materials in the selected order. Given that applications and devices are based on both phenomena and materials, it seemed most appropriate to close the article with the application and devices section (iii) once again. The 2020 Magnetism Roadmap article contains 14 sections, all of which were written by individual authors and experts, specifically addressing a subject in terms of its status, advances, challenges and perspectives in just two pages. Evidently, this two-page format limits the depth to which each subject can be described. Nonetheless, the most relevant and key aspects of each field are touched upon, which enables the Roadmap as whole to give its readership an initial overview of and outlook into a wide variety of topics and fields in a fairly condensed format. Correspondingly, the Roadmap pursues the goal of giving each reader a brief reference frame of relevant and current topics in modern applied magnetism research, even if not all sub-fields can be represented here. The first block of this 2020 Magnetism Roadmap, which is focussed on (i) phenomena, contains five contributions, which address the areas of interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, and two-dimensional and curvilinear magnetism, as well as spin-orbit torque phenomena and all optical magnetization reversal. All of these contributions describe cutting edge aspects of rather fundamental physical processes and properties, associated with new and improved magnetic materials' properties, together with potential developments in terms of future devices and technology. As such, they form part of a widening magnetism 'phenomena reservoir' for utilization in applied magnetism and related device technology. The final block (iii) of this article focuses on such applications and device-related fields in four contributions relating to currently active areas of research, which are of course utilizing magnetic phenomena to enable specific functions. These contributions highlight the role of magnetism or spintronics in the field of neuromorphic and reservoir computing, terahertz technology, and domain wall-based logic. One aspect common to all of these application-related contributions is that they are not yet being utilized in commercially available technology; it is currently still an open question, whether or not such technological applications will be magnetism-based at all in the future, or if other types of materials and phenomena will yet outperform magnetism. This last point is actually a very good indication of the vibrancy of applied magnetism research today, given that it demonstrates that magnetism research is able to venture into novel application fields, based upon its portfolio of phenomena, effects and materials. This materials portfolio in particular defines the central block (ii) of this article, with its five contributions interconnecting phenomena with devices, for which materials and the characterization of their properties is the decisive discriminator between purely academically interesting aspects and the true viability of real-life devices, because only available materials and their associated fabrication and characterization methods permit reliable technological implementation. These five contributions specifically address magnetic films and multiferroic heterostructures for the purpose of spin electronic utilization, multi-scale materials modelling, and magnetic materials design based upon machine-learning, as well as materials characterization via polarized neutron measurements. As such, these contributions illustrate the balanced relevance of research into experimental and modelling magnetic materials, as well the importance of sophisticated characterization methods that allow for an ever-more refined understanding of materials. As a combined and integrated article, this 2020 Magnetism Roadmap is intended to be a reference point for current, novel and emerging research directions in modern magnetism, just as its 2014 and 2017 predecessors have been in previous years