Defects and faults in QCA-based PLAs
Michael Stephen Crocker, Xiaobo Sharon Hu, Michael Thaddeus Niemier · ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems · 2009
Defect tolerance will be critical in any system with nanoscale feature sizes. This article examines some fundamental aspects of defect tolerance for a reconfigurable system based on Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA). We analyze a novel, QCA-based, Programmable Logic Array (PLA) structure, develop an implementation independent fault model, and discuss how expected defects and faults might affect yield. Within this context, we introduce techniques for mapping Boolean logic functions to a defective QCA-based PLA. Simulation results show that our new mapping techniques can achieve higher yields than existing techniques.