LAUSR

Purpose Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) is a promising technology, which seems to be the prospective substitute for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS). It is a high speed, high density and low power paradigm producing efficient circuits. These days, most of the smart devices used for computing, make use of random access memory (RAM). To enhance the performance of a RAM cell, researchers are putting effort to minimize its area and access time. Multilayer structures in QCA framework are area efficient, fast and immune to the random interference. Unlike CMOS, QCA multilayer architectures can be designed using active components on different layers. Thus, using multilayer topology in the design of a RAM cell, which is not yet reported in the literature can improve the performance of RAM and hence, the computing device. This paper aims to present the modular design of RAM cell with multilayer structures in the QCA framework. The fundamental modules such as XOR gate, 2:1 multiplexer and D latch are proposed here using multilayer formations with the goal of designing a RAM cell with the provision of read, write, set and reset control. Design/methodology/approach All the modules used to design a RAM cell are designed using multilayer approach in QCA framework. Findings The proposed multilayer RAM cell is optimized and has shown an improvement of 20% in cell count, 30% in area, 25% in area latency product and 48.8% in cost function over the other efficient RAM designs with set/reset ability reported earlier. The proposed RAM cell is further analyzed for the fault tolerance and power dissipation. Research limitations/implications Due to the multilayer structure, the complexity of the circuit enhances which can be eliminated using simple architectures. Originality/value The performance metrics and results obtained establish that the multilayer approach can be implemented in the QCA circuit to produce area efficient and optimized sequential circuits such as a latch, flip flop and memory cells.