0.21-fJ GaAs DCFL Circuits Using 0.2-µm Y-Shaped Gate AlGaAs/InGaAs E/D-HJFETs

Shigeki WADA
Masatoshi TOKUSHIMA
Masaoki ISHIKAWA
Nobuhide YOSHIDA
Masahiro FUJII
Tadashi MAEDA

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E82-C    No.3    pp.491-497
Publication Date: 1999/03/25
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Issue on Ultra-High-Speed IC and LSI Technology)
Category: Compound Semiconductor Devices
Keyword: 
GaAs,  heterojunction FET,  Y-shaped gate,  DCFL,  low supply voltage,  

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Summary: 
Ultra-low-power-consumption and high-speed DCFL circuits have been fabricated by using 0.2-µm Y-shaped gate E/D-heterojunction-FETs (HJFETs) with a high-aspect-ratio gate-structure, which has an advantage of reducing the gate-fringing capacitance (Cf) to about a half of that of a conventional low-aspect-ratio one. A fabricated 51-stage ring oscillator with the 0.2-µm Y-shaped gate n-AlGaAs/i-InGaAs E/D-HJFETs shows the lowest power-delay product of 0.21 fJ with an unloaded propagation delay of 34.9 ps at a supply voltage (VDD) of 0.4 V. We also analyze the DCFL switching characteristics by taking into account the intrinsic gate-to-source capacitance (Cgsint) and the Cf. The analysis results for the power-delay products agree well with our experimental results. Our analysis also indicates the DCFL circuit with the high-aspect-ratio Y-shaped gate E/D-HJFETs can reduce the power-delay products by 35% or more below 0.25-µm gate-length as compared to conventional ones with the low-aspect-ratio Y-shaped gate HJFETs. These results clarify that the Cf-reduction of the Y-shaped gate HJFETs is more effective in improving the power-delay products than reducing the gate-length.