Ifan external point charge and the movable charges of an isolated quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) cell have the same polarity, the point charge greatly affects the polarization (P) of the cell only when it is in a narrow band with periodically changing width. The center of the band is on a radius R circle. The ratio of R to the electric charge (q) is a constant determined by the parameters of the cell. A QCA cell can be used as charge detector based on the above phenomenon.