Introduction: Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) nanotechnology is one of the most effective approaches for overcoming the secondary effects associated with traditional complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology. CMOS technology fails at ultra-technology nodes due to material limitations. QCA nanotechnology not only addresses these limitations but also offers additional advantages, including faster processing, reduced power consumption, and smaller-area digital logic circuit designs. In the communication domain, a demultiplexer (demux) is an essential component for decoding the original message at the receiver end. Methods: This research proposes an efficient and highly optimized demux circuit based on QCA nanotechnology. The distinctive structure of the proposed demux plays an important role in improving performance metrics. The QCA Designer-E tool is used for circuit simulation, while the QCA Pro tool is employed for energy dissipation calculations. A fault analysis is also conducted to ensure the reliability of the proposed demux design. Results: The proposed demux consists of only 14 cells and requires 0.25 clock cycles. Fault analysis shows that the proposed demux is 81.25% fault tolerant. Additionally, it reduces design cost by 18.60% and improves energy dissipation by 22.14% at the 1.5 kink level compared with the best existing design. Discussion: Comparative results are presented to highlight the advantages of the proposed demux. Conclusion: A QCA-based demux circuit is designed and simulated, and its performance metrics are compared with existing designs. The reduced design cost of the proposed design is attributed to the use of fewer cells and lower latency. Its innovative structure ensures both energy efficiency and reliability.
Sharma et al. (2026) studied this question.