CELLULAR-AUTOMATON CIRCUITS USING SINGLE-ELECTRON-TUNNELING JUNCTIONS

We propose cellular automaton circuits that use single-electron-tunnel ing circuits (SET-CA). Tile unit cell consists of four intrinsic semic onductor islands and four single-electron-tunneling junctions. The die lectric constant of the intrinsic semiconductor is much larger than th at of the junction insulator. The unit cell is charged with two single electrons. Polarization states of the two single electrons in the uni t cell can be used to encode a binary signal. We designed various bina ry logic SET-CA circuits, and analyzed their operation by computer sim ulation. It was demonstrated that the SET-CA circuits having appropria te arrangements of the cells can perform correct signal transmission a nd elemental logic operations such as NOT, NAND, and NOR.