With increases in frequency and density of RISC microprocessors due to rapid advances in architecture, circuit and fine device technologies, power consumption becomes a bigger concern. Supply voltage should be reduced from 5 V to 3.3 V. In this paper, several novel circuits using 0.5µm BiCMOS technology are proposed. These can be applied to a superscalar RISC microprocessor at 3.3 V power supply or below. High speed and low power consumption characteristics are achieved in a floating-point data path, an integer data path and a TLB by using the proposed circuits. The three concepts behind the proposed high speed circuit techniques at low voltage are summarized as follows. There are a number of heavy load paths in a microprocessor, and these become critical paths under low voltage conditions. To achieve high speed characteristics under heavy load conditions without increasing circuit area, low voltage swing operation of a circuit is effective. By exploiting the high conductance of a bipolar transistor, instead of using an MOS transistor, low swing operation can be got. This first concept is applied to a single-ended common-base sense circuit with low swing data lines in the register file of a floating and an integer data path. Both multi-series transistor connections and voltage drops by Vth of MOS transistors and Vbe of bipolar transistors also degrade the speed performance of a circuit. Then the second concept employed is a wired-OR logic circuit technique using bipolar transistors which is applied to a comparator in the TLB instead of multi-series transistor connections of CMOS circuits. The third concept to overcome the voltage drops by Vth and Vbe is addition of a pull up PMOS to both the path logic adder and the BiNMOS logic gate to ensure the circuits have full swing operation.

BiCMOS circuit performance at low supply voltages is discussed. The basic advantages of BiCMOS circuits are briefly reviewed, and then actual advantages of the BiCMOS gate and the BiCMOS sense circuits, which are typical BiCMOS circuits, are explained. Their advantages at low supply voltages are also discussed. BiCMOS gates, BiCMOS sense circuits, and combined circuits that include a BiCMOS sense circuit are two or three times faster than CMOS circuits down to a supply voltage of 2 V. BiCMOS circuits have high performance even at low supply voltages such as 2 V.

Novel circuit design techniques for bipolar and MOS four-quadrant analog multipliers operable on low supply voltage are described. There are three design techniques for multipliers operable on low supply voltage. One is the transistor-size unbalance technique. Another is the bias offset technique. A third is the multitail technique. Bipolar and MOS four-quadrant analog multipliers proposed in this paper consist of transistor-pairs with different transistor sizes (i.e. emitter areas or gate W/L values are different), transistor-pairs with the same bias offset or multitail cells (i.e. quadritail cells and an octotail cell). Several kinds of squaring circuits consisting of such transistor-pairs are applied to the multipliers when the multiplication method is based on the quarter-square technique. These multipliers all have satisfiable multiplication characteristics with four-quadrant operations in analog signal processing, whether implemented in bipolar technology or implemented in MOS technology.

Process and device technologies of CMOS devices for low-voltage operation are described. First, optimum power-supply voltage for CMOS devices is examined in detail from the viewpoints of circuit performance, device reliability and power dissipation. As a result, it is confirmed that power-supply voltage can be reduced without any speed loss of the CMOS device. Based upon theoretical understanding, the author suggests that lowering threshold voltage and reduction of junction capacitance are indispensable for CMOS devices with low-voltage supply, in order to improve the circuit performance, as expected from MOS device scaling. Process and device technologies such as Silicon On Insulator (SOI) device, low-temperature operation and CMOS Shallow Junction Well FET (CMOS-SJET) structure are reviewed for reduction of the threshold voltage and junction capacitance which lead to high-seed operation of the COMS device at low-voltage.

We have developed a new functional MOS transistor called Neuron MOSFET (abbreviated as neuMOS or νMOS) which simulates the function of biological neurons. The new transistor is capable of executing a weighted sum calculation of multiple input signals and threshold operation based on the result of weighted summation, all in the voltage mode at a single transistor level. By utilizing its neuron-like very powerful functional capability, various circuits essential for multiple-valued logic operation have been designed using quite simple circuit configurations. The circuit designs for data conversion between the multivalued and binary logic systems and for generating universal literal functions are described and their experimental verifications are presented. One of the most important features of νMOS multivalued lagic circuit is that the circuit operates basically in the voltage mode, thus greatly reducing the power dissipation as compared to the conventional current mode circuitry. This is indeed most essential in implementing multivalued logic systems in ultra large scale integration. Another important feature of νMOS design is in its flexibility of implementing logic functions. The functional form of a universal literal function, for instance, can be arbitrarily altered by external signals without any modifications in its hardware configuration. A circuit representing multiple-valued multithreshold functions is also proposed.

An RF IC for a 1.1-V VHF paging receiver is developed. In order to reduce the number of components, it employs direct-conversion frequency shift keying (FSK) architecture. The RF IC adopts two new gain control circuits so as to achieve a wide input dynamic range with only a 1.1 V power supply. One is a low-voltage, low-noise, low-distortion RF amplifier and the other is a low-voltage AGC amplifier. By applying these new circuit technologies, the RF IC achieves a voltage gain of 50.5 dB and a noise figure of 4.3 dB with only 2.0 mW power consumption. Overall, the paging receiver achieves a high sensitivity of -130 dBm and low-intermodulation sensitivity of -37 dBm with bit error rate of 310-2. This paper describes the new high-frequency low-voltage circuit technologies applied in the RF IC.

Formation of thin insulating SiO2 films by anodic oxidation of silicon was studied as a part of investigating an alternative method of fabricating low-cost silicon MIS solar cells. Anodization in the constant-voltage mode was carried out in nonaqueous ethylene glycol solution. The film thickness was carefully measured using an ellipsometer of wavelength 6238 . MIS cell performance was evaluated by comparing the open circuit voltage VOC and the short circuit current density ISC with those of the bare Schottky cell (without anodization) under illumination by a tungsten lamp. It was found that anodization in the constant-voltage mode can increase VOC without reducing ISC, and that anodization in the constant-voltage mode is more controllable and reproducible. The optimun formation voltage which gives the maximum VOC of the MIS cell depends on the forming voltage of oxide. A brief discussion on the mechanism for VOC increase is given.

A bipolar power transistor which has beveled side walls with an exposed PN junction has been fabricate using silicon wafer direct bonding technique. It is suitable for a power IC which has a control circuit formed on a SOI structure and a vertical power transistor. It can achieve the breakdown voltage of more than 1000 V in smaller chip size than conventional power devices and reduce the ON-resistance because it is possible to optimize the thickness and resistivity of its low impurity collector layer. Angles of beveled side walls were determined by simulating the electric fields in the devices. As a result, it was found that both NPN and PNP bipolar power transistors with breakdown voltages of 1500 V could be fabricated.

The composition of CMOS control circuit and Vertical-Double-Diffused-MOS (VDMOS) power device on a single chip by using Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) structure is formulated. Because all the MOS transistors in the CMOS control circuit are not isolated by the trenches, the interference phenomenon between SOI and the substrate is studied. Latch-up is detected thus, the construction of a mechanism to prevent latch-up is also studied. To evaluate the SOI CMOS characteristics the effects of voltage fluctuation on the substrate is analized. The latch-up mechanism is also analized by transient device simulation. As a result of this study a guideline for the immunity of latch-up is established, the features of the mechanism are as follows. First, the latch-up trigger is the charging current of the condenser composed of the oxide layer in the SOI structure. Second, latch-up is normally caused by positive feedback between the parasitic PNP-transistor and the parasitic NPN-transistor. However, in this case, electron diffusion toward the P-well is dominant after the parasitic PNP-transistor falls into high level injection. This feature is different from the conventional mechanism. The high level injection is caused by carrier accumulation in the N- region. Considering the above, it is necessary to; (1) reduce the charging current of the condenser, (2) reduce the parasitic resistance in the N- region of SOI, and (3) reduce the carrier accumulation in SOI for immunity from latch-up.

To improve the stability and the power supply rejection ratio (PSRR) of the voltage limiter circuit used in high-density DRAM's we present a voltage limiter circuit with pole-zero compensation. Analytical expressions that describe the stability of the circuit are provided for comprehensive consideration of circuit design. Voltage limiters with pole-zero compensation are shown to have excellent performance with respect to the stability, PSRR, and circuit area occupation. The parasitic resistances in internal voltage supply lines, signal transmission lines, and transistors are important parameters determining the stability of pole-zero compensation. Evaluation of a 16-Mbit test device revealed internal voltage fluctuations of 6% during operation of a chip-internal circuit, a phase margin of 53, and a PSRR of 30 dB.

A new circuit and a transformer structure is described for a high-input-voltage converter operating at a high switching frequency. The two-MOSFET forward converter is suitable for a high-input-voltage converter. To increase the switching frequency, the reset period of the transformer core flux must be reduced. There are a few methods for decreasing the reset period. Increasing the transformer flyback voltage and reducing its stray capacitance are effective in decreasing the reset period without increasing power loss. A new two-MOSFET forward converter is proposed which uset the increased flyback voltage and a transformer structure to reduce the stray capacitance. The new converter using this transformer provides the basis for a 48-V, 100-W output, 270-V input converter operating at 200kHz with high efficiency (above 95%).

The characteristics of voltage-resonant dc-dc converters have already been analyzed and described. However, in the conventional analysis, the inductance of the reactor is assumed to be infinity and the loss resistance of the power circuit is not taken into account. Also, in some cases, the averaging method is applied to analyze the resonant dc-dc converters as well as the pwm dc-dc converters. Consequently, the results from conventional analysis are not entirely in agreement with the experimental ones. This paper presents a general design-oriented analysis of the buck-boost type voltage-resonant dc-dc converter in the continuous and discontinuous modes of the reactor current. In this analysis, the loss resistance in each part of the power circuit, the inductance of the reactor, the effective value (not mean value) of the power loss, and the energy-balance among the input, output and internal-loss powers are taken into account. As a result, the behavior and characteristics of the buck-boost type voltage-resonant dc-dc converter are fully explained. It is also revealed that there is a useful mode in the discontinuous reactor current region, in which the output voltage can be regulated sufficiently for the load change from no load to full load and for the relatively large change of the input voltage, and then the change in the switching frequency can be kept relatively small.

It has been reported that the efficiency of a low voltage power supply is improved by replacing diodes in an output-stage with synchronous rectifiers (SR). A SR consists of a bipolar junction transistor with a low-saturation voltage and a current transformer. Although the SR has low offset-voltage, its reverse recovery characteristic is usually poor. In this paper, an RCD circuit which improves the reverse recovery characteristic of the SR is proposed. This circuit is simple, and it is composed of a diode, a capacitor and a resistor. The analysis and the experimental results of the SR with the proposed RCD circuit are presented. The optimum design of the RCD to improve the reverse recovery characteristic of SR is discussed.

Electromagnetic interference on a bus wiring configuration of the ISDN basic interface using metallic telecommunication lines is studied. A simple circuit to simulate terminal equipment unbalance about earth is developed for measurement purposes, based on the fact that the unbalance weakens the withstanding capability against interference. The electromagnetic interferences from low-voltage supply lines, analog telephone lines and broadcasting waves are evaluated by experiments using the circuit. The interference is measured by both induced voltage on the interface line and the error rate of the transmission signal line. Consequently, it is clarified that the basic interface is disturbed by the induced voltage, because the terminal equipment in the CCITT Recommendation I.430 has too large an unbalance about earth to maintain transmission quality. Adding to this, countermeasures to reduce interference are proposed.