This paper analyzes the effect of random phase shifts in the underlying clock signals on the operation of several basic Quantum-dot
Cellular Automata (QCA) building blocks. Such phase shifts can result from manufacturing variations or from uneven path lengths
in the clocking network. We perform numerical simulations of basic building blocks using two different simulation engines
available in the QCADesigner tool. We assume that the phase shifts are characterized by a Gaussian distribution with a mean
value of
i \fracp2i \frac{\pi}{2}, where
i is the clock number and a standard deviation,
σ, which is varied in each simulation. Our results indicate that the sensitivity of building blocks to phase shifts depends
primarily on the layout while the reliability of all building blocks starts to drop once the standard deviation,
σ exceeds 4°. A full adder was simulated to analyze the operation of a circuit featuring a combination of the building blocks
considered here. Results are consistent with expectations and demonstrate that the carry output of the full adder is better
able to withstand the phase shifts in the clocking network than the
Sum output which features a larger combination of the simulated building blocks.
Keywords Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) - Clocked QCA - Emerging nanotechnologies - Phase shift
Responsible Editors: C. Bolchini and Y.-B. Kim
M. Ottavi is currently with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. This work done when the author was with the ECE Department of Northeastern
University, Boston MA.
V. Vankamamidi is currently with EMC Corporation.