Nanoscale Molecular Automata: From Materials to Architectures

When investigating possible molecular forms for next-generation electronics, the architectures and computing paradigms – either resembling those of classical electronics, or being entirely new - are often established a priori. Research on materials is a subsequent step, which aims to find, in the vast world of molecular materials, those most closely resembling the needed properties. Sometimes, the opposite approach can be both necessary and fruitful. Looking at the characteristics of real-world molecules, and adapting the architecture to them where a tradeoff is possible, is likely a more effective approach than trying to find the right molecule, based on a long list of requirements, often very difficult to fulfil. Here, the problem of matching architecture and materials is introduced, using the promising Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) paradigm.