qSAT: Design of an Efficient Quantum Satisfiability Solver for Hardware Equivalence Checking

Abstract: The use of Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) solver for hardware verification incurs exponential run-time in several instances. In this work we have proposed an efficient quantum SAT (qSAT) solver for equivalence checking of Boolean circuits employing Grover's algorithm. The Exclusive-Sum-of-Product based generation of the Conjunctive Normal Form equivalent clauses demand less qubits and minimizes the gates and depth of quantum circuit interpretation. The consideration of reference circuits for verification affecting Grover's iterations and quantum resources are also presented as a case study. Experimental results are presented assessing the benefits of the proposed verification approach using open-source Qiskit platform and IBM quantum computer.