Study of two-dimensional device-error-redundant single-electron oscillator system

Abstract

This paper reports the study of a two-dimensional device-error-redundant single-electron (SE) circuit. The circuit is an SE reaction-diffusion (RD) circuit that imitates the unique behavior of the chemical RD system and is expected to be a new information processing system. The original RD system is a complex chemical system that is said to express selforganizing dynamics in nature. It can also be assumed to operate as parallel information processing systems. Therefore, by imitating the original RD system for SE circuits, this SE-RD circuit can perform parallel information processing that is based on a natural phenomenon. However, the circuit is very sensitive to noise because it is controlled by a very small amount of energy. It is also sensitive to device errors (e.g., circuit parameter fluctuations in the fabrication process). Generally, fluctuations caused by errors introduced in manufacturing the circuit components trigger incorrect circuit operations, including noises. To overcome such noises, the circuit requires redundant properties for noise. To address this issue, we consider mimicking the information processing method of the natural world for the circuit to obtain noise redundancy. Actually, we previously proposed a unique method based on a model of neural networks with a stochastic resonance (SR) for the circuit. The SR phenomenon, which was discovered in studies of living things (e.g., insects), can be considered a type of noise-energy-harnessing system. Many researchers have proposed SR-based applications for novel electronic devices or systems. In networks where SR exists, signals can generally be distinguished from noise by harnessing noise energy. We previously designed SE-SR systems and succeeded in making an architecture for an SE circuit that has thermal noise redundancy. At the time, we applied an SR model proposed by Collins to our circuit. Prior to our current study, however, it had not yet been confirmed whether SE circuits have device-error redundancy. In this study, we attempt to confirm this by using Monte Carlo simulation to study the characteristics of the abovementioned SE-RD circuit. Simulation results indicate that the SE-RD circuit, which is based on an SR model, has not only deviceerror redundancy but also thermal noise redundancy. The circuit is therefore expected to prove that the parameter matching step in the circuit fabrication process can be omitted.