A Novel Design of a Multi-layer 2:4 Decoder using Quantum- Dot Cellular Automata

The quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) is considered as an alternative to complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology based on physical phenomena like Coulomb interaction to overcome the physical limitations of this technology. The decoder is one of the important components in digital circuits, which can be used in more comprehensive circuits such as full adders and memories. This paper proposes the 2:4 decoder using multilayer QCA technology. The multilayer decoder provides requirements of high-density devices with good computing power. The proposed 2:4 active high decoder reduces the clock phases to three, making the circuit faster than previous ones. Moreover, the number of cells and occupied space are significantly reduced, thus reducing power consumption. Multi-layer architecture has more reliability than coplanar architecture and allows for the easy layout change. The structure was simulated using QCA Designer software, and the simplified expressions and standard functions have been presented. The simulation results can be useful for using them in logic circuits.