Carbon Nanotubes for Quantum-Dot Cellular Automata Clocking

Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) is an approach to computing which eliminates the need for transistors or current switches by representing binary digits as charge configurations rather than current levels. Coulomb interactions provide device coupling without current flow. The QCA clock signal consists of an electric field being raised and lowered. By introducing clocked control of the QCA cell, power gain, reduced power dissipation and computational pipelining can be achieved. The wires needed to generate the clocking field have been thought to be the limiting factor in the density of QCA circuits. This paper explores the feasibility of using single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) to implement the clocking fields, effectively removing the clocking wire to greater circuit densities.