CHAPTER 15 ADVANCED MOS AND BIPOLAR LOGIC CIRCUITS

Chapter Outline
15.1 Pseudo-NMOS Logic Circuits
15.2 Pass-Transistor Logic Circuits
15.3 Dynamic MOS Logic Circuits
15.4 Emitter-Coupled Logic (ECL)
15.5 BiCMOS Digital Circuits

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15.1 PSEUDO-NMOS LOGIC CIRCUITS

NMOS Inverter Circuits
A simple inverter circuit is composed of a NMOS and a load
The load can be realized by a resistor or another NMOS device
Resistive Load
NMOS Inverter

Enhancement Load
NMOS Inverter

Pseudo-NMOS Inverters

Use a PMOS transistor as the load

Does not suffer from body effect
Directly compatible with complementary CMOS circuits
Area and delay penalties arising from the fan-in in
complementary CMOS gate are reduced

Depletion Load
NMOS Inverter

Pseudo-NMOS Inverter

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15.1 PSEUDO-NMOS LOGIC CIRCUITS

Static Characteristics

Load curve represents a much lower saturation current

kn is usually greater than kp by a factor of 4 to 10
A ratioed type logic with r kn/kp
The logic is typically operated in two extremely cases:
vI = 0: vO = VOH = VDD
vI = VDD: vO = VOL > 0 (nonzero VOL for pseudo-NMOS)
The VTC can be derived based on iDN and iDP:
1
k n (vI Vt ) 2 for vO vI Vt (saturation)
2
1

k n (vI Vt )vO vO2 for vO vI Vt (triode)

2

1
k p (VDD Vt ) 2 for vO Vt (saturation)
2
1

k p (VDD Vt )(VDD vO ) (VDD vO ) 2 for vO Vt (triode)

2

iDN

iDN

iDP
iDP

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Derivation of the VTC

Assume Vtn = |Vtp| = Vt for the derivations
Region I (Segment AB):
vO VOH VDD

Region II (Segment BC):

vO Vt (VDD Vt ) 2 r (vI Vt ) 2

Region III (Segment CD):

1
1

r (vI Vt )vO vO2 (VDD Vt )(VDD vO ) (VDD vO ) 2

2
2

Region
R i IV (S
(Segmentt DE)
DE):

1
vO (vI Vt ) (vI Vt ) 2 (VDD Vt ) 2
r

Static Characteristics:
VOL (VDD Vt )(1 1 k p / k n )

VOH VDD
VIH Vt

2
3k n / k p

(VDD Vt )

NM H VOH VIH

VM Vt

VIL Vt

VDD Vt
(k n / k p )(k n / k p 1)

NM L VIL VOL

VDD Vt
kn / k p 1

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Dynamic Operation
Determine tPLH:
The analysis is identical to the CMOS inverter and the output capacitance C is charged by PMOS
t PLH

pC
k pVDD

7 V V 2
where p 2 / 3 t t
4 VDD VDD

Determine tPHL:
The discharge current is iDN iDP while iDP is typically negligible as r is large
t PHL

nC
k nVDD

3 1 1 V V 2
where n 2 / 1 1 3 t t
r VDD VDD
4 r

n p for a large value of r and tPHL is much larger than tPLH

Design of Pseudo-NMOS Inverter

Determine ratio r = kn / kp
The larger the value of r, the lower VOL is
A larger r increases the asymmetry in the dynamic response
Usually, r is selected in the range of 4 to 10
Determine (W/L)n and (W/L)p
A small (W/L) to keep the gate area and the value of C small
A small (W/L) to keeps Isat of QP and static power dissipation low
A large (W/L) to obtain a small propagation delay tP and fast response
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Gate Circuits
Design of gate circuits refers to a standard pseudo-NMOS inverter
The approach to determine the PDN is identical to that of a complementary CMOS gate
The sizing of the PDN has to be taken into account to meet VOL and delay requirement

Concluding Remarks
In pseudo-NMOS, NOR gates are preferred over NAND gates in order to use minimum-size devices
Pseudo-NMOS is particularly suited for applications in which the output remains high most of the time
The static power dissipation can be reasonably low
The output transitions that matter would presumably be high-to-low ones where the propagation delay
can be made as short as necessary
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15.2 PASS-TRANSISTOR LOGIC CIRCUITS

Design of Pass-Transistor Logic (PTL) Circuits

Using series and parallel combinations of switches

The switches are controlled by input logic variables to connect the input and output nodes
Can be implemented by a single NMOS transistor or CMOS transmission gate
Every circuit node has at all times a low-resistance path to VDD or ground

Y ABC

Y A( B C )

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Operation with NMOS Transistor as the Switch

Pass-transistor with output high (poor 1)
The output node refers to the source terminal of the NMOS
Q is in saturation during the charging process and Vt increases with vO due to body effect
tPLH increases as the charging current reduces by higher Vt due to body effect
VOH = VDD Vt leads to a reduction in the gate noise immunity

Pass-transistor with output low (good 0)

The input node refers to the source terminal of the NMOS
No body effect
The output node can be discharged completely VOL = 0

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Restoring the Output Level

The circuit-based approach by adding a feedback loop with QR
The PMOS QR turns on by vO2 (= 0) to restore the signal loss at vO1 = 1
The PMOS QR is turn off by vO2 (= 1) when vO1 = 0
Operation is more involved than it appears due to the positive feedback
QR has to be a weak PMOS transistor in order not to play a major role in the circuit operation
The alternative approach by process technology
The signal loss is due to the threshold voltage of the NMOS devices
Threshold adjustment by ion implantation to during fabrication make zero-threshold devices
Subthreshold
S bth h ld conduction
d ti becomes
b
significant
i ifi t for
f zero-threshold
th h ld devices
d i

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The Use of CMOS Transmission Gates as Switches

PMOS and NMOS are in parallel with complementary control signals

Both NMOS and PMOS provide charging/discharging current
Good logic level with VOH = VDD and VOL = 0
The complexity, silicon area and load capacitance are increased
Body effect has to be taken into account to evaluate iDN and iDP

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The Equivalent Resistance of the Transmission Gate

The equivalent resistance of QN:
For vO VDD Vtn:
iDN

VDD vO
1
k n (VDD Vtn vO ) 2 and RNeq
1
2
k n (VDD Vtn vO ) 2
2

For vO VDD Vtn:

iDN 0 and RNeq

The equivalent resistance of QP:

For vO |Vtp |:
iDP

V v
1
d RPeq 1 DD O
k p (VDD | Vtp |) 2 and
2
k p (VDD | Vtp |) 2
2

For vO |Vtp |:

iDP k p (VDD | Vtp |)(VDD vO ) (VDD vO ) 2 and RPeq

2

Empirical formula for the equivalent resistance:

RTG

VDD vO
1

k p (VDD | Vtp |)(VDD vO ) (VDD vO ) 2

2

12.5
(k)
(W / L) n

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Calculation of Propagation Delay in the Signal Path

The signal path containing multiple transmission gates can be modeled by resistors and capacitors

The model is in a form of an RC ladder network

The propagation delay is given by Elmore delay formula as
t P 0.69[(Cout1 CTG1 ) RP1 (CTG 2 Cin 2 )( RP1 RTG )]

*Elmore delay formula is given by

t P 0.69[C1 R1 C2 ( R1 R2 ) C3 ( R1 R2 R3 ) ...]

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Pass-Transistor Logic Circuit Examples

Final Remarks
Advantages of CMOS transmission gate over pass-transistor logic with NMOS devices
Logic level: good 1 and 0
No level restoring technique needed
Disadvantages of CMOS transmission gate over pass-transistor logic with NMOS devices
Silicon area and complexity: an additional input requires one NMOS and one PMOS devices
Complementary control signal required
Propagation delay: more capacitive loading from the MOSFETs

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15.3 DYNAMIC LOGIC CIRCUITS

Principle of Dynamic Logic Circuits
Rely on the storage of signal voltage on parasitic capacitances at certain circuit nodes
The circuits need to be periodically refreshed
Maintain the low device count of pseudo-NMOS while reducing the static power dissipation to zero

Operation of Dynamic Logic Circuits

Precharge phase: Qp on and Qe off charge the output node to VDD
Evaluation phase: Qp off and Qe on selectively discharge the output node through PDN

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Nonideal Effects
Noise margin:
Since VIL VIH Vtn , the resulting noise margins are NML Vtn and NMH VDD Vtn
Asymmetric noise immunity (poor NML)
Output voltage decay due to leakage effects:
Leakage current will slowly discharge the output node when PDN is off
The leakage is from the reversed-biased junctions and possibly the subthreshold conduction
Charge sharing:
Some of the internal nodes in PDN will share the charge in CL even the PDN path is off
Can be solved by adding a permanently turn-on
turn on transistor QL at the cost of static power dissipation

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Domino CMOS Logic

Problem with cascading dynamic logic gates: errors cuased by undesirable premature discharge
Precharge

Evaluation

Y1
VM
Y2

t
Premature discharge
t

Domino CMOS logic:

A dynamic logic with a static CMOS inverter connected to its output
The output Y is 0 in the precharge phase and at the beginning of the
evaluation phase
Alleviate the premature discharge problem for the following stages

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 A cascade of Domino CMOS logic:

Each stage has to wait for the rising edge from the preceding stage
The rising edge propagates through a cascade of gates

Concluding Remarks
Advantages of Domino logic: small silicon area, high-speed operation, and zero static power dissipation
Disadvantages of Domino logic:
Asymmetric noise margin
Leakage issue
Charge sharing
Dead time: unavailability of output during precharge phase

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15.4 EMITTER-COUPLED LOGIC (ECL)

Basic Principle
High speed is achieved by operating all transistor out of saturation to avoid storage time delays
By keeping the logic signal swings relatively small (~0.8V) to reduce the charging/discharging time
One of the inputs is connected to a reference voltage VR
When vI is greater than VR by about 4VT vO1 = VCC IRC and vO2 = VCC
When vI is smaller than VR by about 4VT vO1 = VCC and vO2 = VCC IRC.
Important features of ECL:
The differential nature of the circuit makes it less susceptible to picked-up noise
The current drawn from the power supply remains constant during switching no current spikes.
The output signal levels are both referenced to VCC and can be made particularly stable with VCC = 0V
Some means has to be provided to make the output signal levels compatible with those at the input
The availability of complementary output considerably simplifies logic design with ECL

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The Basic Gate Circuit

Bias network:
The network generates a reference voltage VR of 1.32V at room temperature
VR is made to change with T in a predetermined manner so as to keep the noise margins constant
VR is also made relatively insensitive to variations in the power supply voltage VEE

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 Differential input stage:

Paralleling input transistors (QA and QB) are used to implement OR and NOR functions
Current in RE remains approximately constant over the normal range of operation
Use resistors to connect each input terminal to the negative supply can leave unused inputs open
Emitter-follower output stage:
On-chip loads are not included as the gate drives a transmission line terminated at the other end in
most of high-speed logic
Emitter followers shift the level by one vBE drop the shifted levels are centered around VR
Provide low output resistance and large current driving capability
Separate power-supply prevents coupling of power-supply spikes from the output to the gate circuit

ECL Families
ECL 100K: tP 0.75ns and PD 40mW PDP = 30pJ
ECL 10K: tP 2ns and PD 25mW PDP = 50pJ
A variant of ECL (current-mode logic) has become popular in VLSI applications
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Voltage Transfer Characteristics

Definition of unity-gain: QA (or QR) is conducting 1% (or 99%) of IE
Assuming the vBE = 0.75V at a emitter current of 1 mA for an ECL transistor

OR Transfer Curve

I E |Q R
I E |Q A

99 VBE |QR VBE |QA VT ln 99 115mV

VOL 4 0.245 0.75 1.73V

VIL 1.32 0.115 1.435V

VOH 0.88V

VIH 1.32 0.115 1.205V

V VBE |QR VEE 1.32 0.75 5.2
for vI < VIL: I E R

4mA
RE
0.779

NM L VIL VOL 1.435 (1.77) 0.335V

NM H VOH VIH 0.88 (1.205) 0.325V

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NOR Transfer Curve

I E |Q R
I E |Q A

99 VBE |QR VBE |QA VT ln 99 115mV

VIL 1.32 0.115 1.435V

VIH 1.32 0.115 1.205V
for vI < VIL: VOH = 0.88V
for vI = VIH:
VIH VBE |QA VEE

1.205 0.75 5.2

4.17mA
RE
0.779
vO 4.17 0.22 0.75 1.667V
IE

for vI = VOH:

VOL

VOH VBE |QA VEE

0.88 0.75 5.2

4.58mA
RE
0.779
4.58 0.22 0.75 1.758V

IE

NM L VIL VOL 1.435 (1.758) 0.323V

NM H VOH VIH 0.88 (1.205) 0.325V

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Manufacturers Specifications
VILmax = 1.475 V VIHmin = 1.105 V
VOLmax = 1.630 V VOHmin = 0.980 V

Fan-Out
IIL = (1.77+5.2)/50 = 69 A IIH = (0.88+5.2)/50 + 4/101 = 126 A
Input currents are small and output resistance is small fan-out of ECL is not limited by logic-level
The fan-out is limited by considerations of circuit speed

Operating Speed
The speed
p
is measured by
y the delayy of its basic ggate and by
y the rise and fall times of the output
p waveforms
Using emitter follower as the output stage, the ECL gate exhibit shorter rise time than its fall time

Signal Transmission
ECL is particularly sensitive to ringing because the signal levels are so small
One solution is to keep the wires very short with respect to the signal rise/fall time
the reflections return while the input is still rising/falling
If greater lengths are needed, then transmission lines must be used
the reflection is suppressed with proper termination

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Power Dissipation
Gate power dissipation of unterminated ECL remain relatively constant independent of the logic state
No current spikes are introduced on the supply line
The need for supply-line bypassing in ECL is not as great as in TTL

Thermal Effects
The reference voltage VR is 1.32V at room temperature
VR is made to change with T in a predetermined manner so as to keep the noise margins almost constant
A demonstration of the high degree of design optimization of this gate circuit

Wired-OR Capability
p
y
The emitter follower output stage of the ECL family allows wired-OR for logic design
The OR function is implemented by wiring the output of several gates in parallel

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15.5 BICMOS DIGITAL CIRCUITS

The BiCMOS Circuits
BiCMOS Technology combines Bipolar and CMOS Circuits on one IC chip
CMOS (low-power, high input impedance, wide noise margins) + Bipolar (high current-driving capability)
Particularly useful for logic with large fan-out (large capacitive load)

The Simple BiCMOS Inverter

Cascading each of the QN and QP devices of the MCOS inverter with an npn transistor
Input high:
QN turns on and the drain current flows into the base of Q2 as the base current
The initial discharge current iDN + iDN vO drops
QN in
i deep
d
triode
t i d with
ith iD = 0 as vO drops
d
tto VBEon (
( 0.7V)
0 7V) VOL = VBEon
Input low:
QP turns on and the drain current flows into the base of Q1 as the base current
The initial discharge current ( iDP vO increases
QP in deep triode with iDP=0 as vO drops to VBEon ( 0.7V) VOH = VDD VBEon
Q1 and Q2 are operating in nonsaturation mode and will not turn on simultaneously
Reduced noise margin due to smaller logic swing
No base discharge path to speed up the turn-off of Q1 and Q2 long turn-off delays.

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BiCMOS Inverter with Bleeder Resistors

Resistor R1 and R2 are added to provide base discharge paths for Q1 and Q2 turn-off
Input high:
QN turns on and QP turns off provides discharging current through QN and Q2
vO is discharged below VBEon through QN and R2 improved noise margin
Pulling vO from VBEon to ground is rather slow due to the high impedance path (QN and R2)
Input low:
QN turns off and QP turns on provides charging current through QP and Q1
A dc current path exist from VDD to ground through QP and R1 when Q1 is off
vO can only be charged up to VDD VDS,P
DS P VBEon
BE by Q1
R1 and R2 take some of the drain currents of QP and QN away from the bases of Q1 and Q2 and thus slightly
reduce the output charging/discharging currents of the gate
R1 and R2 are typically implemented by MOSFET QR1 and QR2
QR1 conducts only when vI is high R1 to discharge Q1
QR2 conducts only when vI is low R2 to discharge Q2

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BiCMOS Inverter R-circuit

R1 is connected to the output node rather than returning to ground:
The problem of static power dissipation is now solved
R1 now functions as a pull-up resistor, pulling the output node voltage up to VDD

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Dynamic Operation

The detailed analysis of the dynamic operation is rather complex

The propagation delay is estimated by the time required to charge and discharge a load capacitance C
Such an approximation is justified in cases where C is relatively large
Usually the case for application of BiCMOS inverters
1 W
2
k p VDD | VtP |
2 L P
iR1 VBEon / R1
iD

iB iD iR1
i (1 )iB iR1
t PLH

iD

CVDD / 2
i

1 W
2
k n VDD VBEon Vtn
2 L N

iR2 VBEon / R2
iB iD iR2
i iB iD
t PHL

CVDD / 2
i

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BiCMOS Logic Gates

BiCMOS logic gates can be implemented following the same approach as the inverters
The bipolar portion simply functions as an output stage
QN and QP are replaced by pull-down network and pull-up network

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