Single-bit comparator in quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) technology using novel QCA-XNOR gates

Abstract

To fill the continuous needs for faster processing elements with less power consumption causes large pressure on the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology developers. The scaling scenario is not an option nowadays and other technologies need to be investigated. The quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) technology is one of the important emerging nanotechnologies that have attracted much researchers’ attention in recent years. This technology has many interesting features, such as high speed, low power consumption, and small size. These features make it an appropriate alternative to the CMOS technique. This paper suggests three novel structures of XNOR gates in the QCA technology. The presented structures do not follow the conventional approaches to the logic gates design but depend on the inherent capabilities of the new technology. The proposed structures are used as the main building blocks for a single-bit comparator. The resulted circuits are simulated for the verification purpose and then compared with existing counterparts in the literature. The comparison results are encouraging to append the proposed structures to the library of QCA gates.