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GaAs analog to digital converter and memory IC's for ultra high speed transient recording

Journal Article · · IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.; (United States)

The excellent electron dynamical properties of gallium arsenide enable GaAs devices to achieve high speed performance levels many times those of corresponding silicon devices. These device performance advantages carry over into integrated circuit technologies as well, aided significantly by the fact that GaAs substrate material is available in semi-insulating (>10/sup 8/..cap omega..cm) form for very low parasitics in monolithic integrated circuits. This has led to the achievement of logic delays as low as 12.8ps at 77/sup 0/K or 16.8ps at 300/sup 0/K in the more exotic GaAs IC approaches. In the standard 1..mu..m gate length, planar MESFET GaAs circuits, ring oscillator delays of /tau/ /SUB d/ =52ps at P /SUB D/ =1mw/gate have been demonstrated, increasing to /tau/ /SUB d/ =70ps at P /SUB D/ =2mw/gate in MSI flip flop circuits (standard f /SUB toggle/ =1/5/tau/ /SUB d/ type-D flip flops toggle up to nearly 3 GHz). The planar ion implanted GaAs MESFET circuits have been fabricated in circuit complexities up to 1008 logic gates, with NOR gate delays as low as 150ps obtained in these LSI chips (e.g., a 35/tau/ /SUB d/ multiply time of 5.25ns in 8x8 bit latched parallel multiplier circuits). These 1..mu..m gate length MESFET circuits have been fabricated on up to 3'' diameter GaAs wafers using the same type of DSW optical lithography used for silicon VLSI, which is considered ample evidence that this GaAs IC technology can be cost-effective and is ready for commercialization. These paper focuses on the application of this MESFET GaAs IC technology for the types of digital memory and analog to digital converter circuits required to implement ultra high speed transient recorders.

Research Organization:
Gigabit Logic, Inc., Culver City, CA 90230
OSTI ID:
5941947
Journal Information:
IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.; (United States), Journal Name: IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.; (United States) Vol. 30:1; ISSN IETNA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English