Heliyon (Sep 2024)
An efficient new design of nano-scale comparator circuits using quantum-dot technology
Abstract
Traditional semiconductor-based technology has recently faced many issues, such as physical scalability constraints and short-channel properties. Much research on nano-scale designs has resulted in these flaws. Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) is a promising nanotechnology solution for solving CMOS-related issues. The 4-dot squared cell is identified as the main feature of this technology. Also, a comparator is an essential electronic device that compares 2 voltages or currents. It is frequently employed to confirm whether an input has achieved a predefined value or not. So, the design of the QCA-based comparator is one of the interesting lines in recent studies. However, cell and area consumption limits the circuit design in the most relevant research. As a result, two efficient comparator circuits based on the inherent rules of quantum dots have been presented in this work. The proposed 1-bit design employs 35 quantum cells in a 0.04 μm2 compact layout space. Also, the proposed 2-bit design uses 173 cells in a 0.19 μm2 compact layout area. These circuits, which are built across three layers of 90-degree cells, remove the need for coplanar crossovers, ensuring accessible inputs and outputs. The presented 1-bit comparator circuit uses 3 majority gates with three inputs. The first output signal in 1-bit comparator is generated after 0.75 clock phases and in 2-bit design after 1.25 clock phases. QCADesigner-E evaluated the suggested circuits' practical accuracy, cost, and power. The results showed that the proposed designs are extremely efficient in cell and area consumption compared to the state-of-the-art designs.
