Sustainable IoT solutions: Developing a quantum-aware circuit for improving energy efficiency based on atomic silicon

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) can be described as a network of physical objects equipped with sensors, processing power, software, and any other types of technology that allows them to communicate and share data with other devices and systems. The proliferation of IoT is conditional on developing energy-saving blocks of computation with sustained connectivity and real-time information processing capabilities. Traditional technologies like CMOS and VLSI circuits face critical failures at scales below 4 nm, including excessive current leakages, high energy consumption, and thermal instability, which make them less appropriate for future micro-scale IoT chips. To overcome such limitations, a new alternative technology called Atomic Silicon Dangling Bond (ASDB) nanotechnology has been developed, leveraging atomistic accuracy in countering CMOS-related inefficiencies and supporting quantum-inspired computational processes. Since Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU) is a primary unit of any digital system like IoT, this work introduces the necessity of quantum-aware ALU development, taking a quantum-inspired computational mechanism and leveraging ASDB’s native quantum behavior for increased performance, accuracy, and efficiency in IoT systems. A single-bit ALU for micro-IoT blocks is developed using ASDB nanotechnology with robust computational design to guarantee operational integrity. The design is analyzed through SiQAD simulator in terms of energy consumption, logical accuracy, and area consumption. The proposed ALU in this work demonstrates a reduction in occupied area and quantum cell count, highlighting a significant step toward ultra-dense integration. Furthermore, with an energy consumption reduction of 3.19% compared to the best design, this ALU offers a sustainable and practical solution for low-power IoT applications in the future.