High-Performance Digital VLSI Circuit Design

Book excerpt: High-Performance Digital VLSI Circuit Design is the first book devoted entirely to the design of digital high-performance VLSI circuits. CMOS, BiCMOS and bipolar ciruits are covered in depth, including state-of-the-art circuit structures. Recent advances in both the computer and telecommunications industries demand high-performance VLSI digital circuits. Digital processing of signals demands high-speed circuit techniques for the GHz range. The design of such circuits represents a great challenge; one that is amplified when the power supply is scaled down to 3.3 V. Moreover, the requirements of low-power/high-performance circuits adds an extra dimension to the design of such circuits. High-Performance Digital VLSI Circuit Design is a self-contained text, introducing the subject of high-performance VLSI circuit design and explaining the speed/power tradeoffs. The first few chapters of the book discuss the necessary background material in the area of device design and device modeling, respectively. High-performance CMOS circuits are then covered, especially the new all-N-logic dynamic circuits. Propagation delay times of high-speed bipolar CML and ECL are developed analytically to give a thorough understanding of various interacting process, device and circuit parameters. High-current phenomena of bipolar devices are also addressed as these devices typically operate at maximum currents for limited device area. Different, new, high-performance BiCMOS circuits are presented and compared to their conventional counterparts. These new circuits find direct applications in the areas of high-speed adders, frequency dividers, sense amplifiers, level-shifters, input/output clock buffers and PLLs. The book concludes with a few system application examples of digital high-performance VLSI circuits. Audience: A vital reference for practicing IC designers. Can be used as a text for graduate and senior undergraduate students in the area.