Evolutionary design of single electron systems

Abstract

The differences between electronics design through artificial evolution and through conventional methods have the consequence that evolved circuits may take unusual leverage from the physics of their medium of implementation. This can occur even if there is no tractable analytical model to predict how the overall behaviour will emerge from the interactions of the components. This is alluring for single-electron circuit design, and a first case-study is presented: the evolution of a NOR gate. Although the results to date are far from ideal or practical, it appears that the particular thermal energies of the electrons are exploited. Whether desirable or not, this indicates that evolution can explore new kinds of designs not seen before in the literature.