A model for variation- and fault-tolerant digital logic using self-assembled nanowire architectures

Abstract

Reconfiguration has been used for both defect- and fault-tolerant nanoscale architectures with regular structure. Recent advances in self-assembled nanowires have opened doors to a new class of electronic devices with irregular structure. For such devices, reservoir computing has been shown to be a viable approach to implement computation. This approach exploits the dynamical properties of a system rather than specifics of its structure. Here, we extend a model of reservoir computing, called the echo state network, to reflect more realistic aspects of self-assembled nanowire networks. As a proof of concept, we use echo state networks to implement basic building blocks of digital computing: AND, OR, and XOR gates, and 2-bit adder and multiplier circuits. We show that the system can operate perfectly in the presence of variations five orders of magnitude higher than ITRS's 2005 target, 6%, and achieves success rates 6 times higher than related approaches at half the cost. We also describe an adaptive algorithm that can detect faults in the system and reconfigure it to resume perfect operational condition.