Quasiadiabatic switching for metal-island quantum-dot cellular automata

Recent experiments have demonstrated a working cell suitable for implementi ng the quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) paradigm. These experiments have been performed using metal-island clusters. The most promising approach to QCA operation involves quasiadiabatically switching the cells. This has be en analyzed extensively in gated semiconductor cells. Here we present a met al-island cell structure that makes quasiadiabatic switching possible. We s how how this permits quasiadiabatic clocking, and enables a pipelined archi tecture. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)04204-8].