  We describe an array of quantum gates implementing Shor's algorithm for prime
factorization in a quantum computer. The array includes a circuit for modular
exponentiation with several subcomponents (such as controlled multipliers,
adders, etc) which are described in terms of elementary Toffoli gates. We
present a simple analysis of the impact of losses and decoherence on the
performance of this quantum factoring circuit. For that purpose, we simulate a
quantum computer which is running the program to factor N = 15 while
interacting with a dissipative environment. As a consequence of this
interaction randomly selected qubits may spontaneously decay. Using the results
of our numerical simulations we analyze the efficiency of some simple error
correction techniques.
