Designing a Nanoelectronic Circuit
to Control a Millimeter-scale Walking Robot
November 2004
Alexander J. Gates, The MITRE Corporation
ABSTRACT
A novel nanoelectronic digital logic circuit was designed to control a millimeter-scale
walking robot using a nanowire circuit architecture. This nanoelectronic circuit has a number of
benefits, including extremely small size and relatively low power consumption. These make it
ideal for controlling microelectromechnical systems (MEMS), such as a millirobot. Simulations
were performed using a SPICE circuit simulator, and unique device models were constructed in this
research to assess the function and integrity of the nanoelectronic circuit's output. It was
determined that the output signals predicted for the nanocircuit by these simulations meet the
requirements of the design, although there was a minor signal stability issue. A proposal is made
to ameliorate this potential problem. Based on this proposal and the results of the simulations,
the nanoelectronic circuit designed in this research could be used to begin to address the broader
issue of further miniaturizing circuit-micromachine systems.
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