Design of reversible logic circuits using quantum dot cellular automata-based system

Abstract Shrinking transistor sizes and power dissipation are the major barriers in the development of future computational circuits. At least when the transistor size approaches the atomic scale, duplication of transistor density according to Moore’s law will not be possible. Physical limits, like quantum effects and nondeterministic behavior of small currents, and technological limits, such as high power consumption and design complexity, may hold back the future program of microelectronic conventional circuit scaling. Hence, an alternative technology is required for future design. Quantum dot-cellular automata (QCA) is a transistor-less, very promising nanotechnology that can be used to build nanocircuits. The conventional computer is an irreversible one; i.e. once a logic block generates the output bits, the input bits are lost. A possible solution is reversible computing, where no bit is lost during computation. Hence, logically reversible circuit can consume less energy than any conventional circuit. In this paper, a brief review on evolution of the QCA in reversible computing is discussed. Various reversible gates that are designed using QCA technology as well as the modification of those designs that are made in latter works are highlighted.