Silicon MESFETS

The potential of silicon metal-semiconductor field effect transistors (MESFETs) as a high-speed low-power integrated circuit technology is investigated. The device physics of submicron MESFETs and the modeling of their characteristics is emphasized. Two device models are derived, one of which was implemented in the integrated circuit simulation program SPICE2 and is now publicly available. The circuit techniques in the MESFET technology are investigated by means of SPICE2 simulations and experimental divide-by-two and ring oscillator circuit performances. The optimum circuit techniques are applied in the design of some LSI circuits: a 1 x 1K bit static shift register and parallel multipliers (8 x 8 bit and 10 x 10 bit). Their experimental and simulated performances are presented. The silicon MESFET technology is compared to the MOSFET and bipolar technologies for both present device dimensions and scaled-down ones.