Devices and circuits for bipolar (V)LSI

It is shown that bipolar circuits can continue to play an important role in high-performance LSI and VLSI circuits, because power supply voltages and logic swings can be minimized independently of dimensions, and because the speed degradation due to on-chip wiring capacitances is less severe than in MOSFET/MESFET types of circuit. General performance improvements (in speed and packing density) of logic gates are obtained by increasing transistor fT, and decreasing parasitic capacitances, series resistances and device areas, by using oxide isolation, self-aligned techniques and polysilicon electrodes. Fast switching diodes (such as Schottky barrier diodes and lateral polydiodes) improve the flexibility of circuit design. Logic circuits (such as I²L, LS, DTL, ISL, STL, ECL, and NTL), which already perform in LSI and VLSI circuits or are realistic proposals for them, are discussed.