VHSIC /very high speed integrated circuits/ - Technologies and tradeoffs

Very high speed integrated circuits (VHSIC) are large-scale digital integrated circuits with typical logic-gate propagation delays below 1 nanosecond. Bipolar technology was first to enter into this speed range. However, MOS and GaAs technologies are now also available. Attention is given to emitter-coupled logic, integrated injection logic, n-channel MOS logic, complementary MOS logic, depletion-mode GaAs logic, and enhancement-mode GaAs logic. Gate arrays are considered, taking into account the basic structure, capacitances, propagation delays, transistor sizes, and a comparison of propagation delays. Advantages and limitations of custom logic and functional cells are examined, and questions of power dissipation and chip complexity are investigated.