Designing Fault-Tolerant Digital Circuits in Quantum-Dot Cellular Automata

Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) nanotechnology paradigm is a non-transistor-based technique to design digital circuits. Computation and transmission are done by electronic repulsion. Fabrication defects are a critical factor of concern in QCA circuits. However, this is not largely considered in many of the QCA designs. In this chapter, a detailed analysis is made on the fabrication faults and metrics to estimate the fault-tolerant ability of QCA circuits. Based on the detailed analysis, factors that impact the fault tolerance and design considerations to improve the fault tolerance are presented. These techniques can be used to design fault-tolerant and reliable circuits. QCADesigner tool is used for the analysis.