Quasi-adiabatic Switching for Metal-Island Quantum-dot Cellular Automata

Recent experiments have demonstrated a working cell suitable for implementing the Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) paradigm. These experiments have been performed using metal island clusters. The most promising approach to QCA operation involves quasi-adiabatically switching the cells. This has been analyzed extensively in gated semiconductor cells. Here we present a metal island cell structure that makes quasi-adiabatic switching possible. We show how this permits quasi-adiabatic clocking, and enables a pipelined architecture.