Design and Simulation of a Novel Bipolar Digital Logic Technology for a Balanced Performance in 4H-SiC

Abstract

High performance and stable operation are desired features of today’s integrated circuits (ICs). Due to its inherent properties, devices based on silicon carbide (SiC) exhibit excellent temperature and radiation tolerance, with performance levels similar to or better than the ones in silicon (Si). Instead of specifically creating circuit topologies suited for SiC, current research efforts are focused on adapting existing Si-based technologies to SiC. In this letter, we report a novel bipolar logic technology designed to exploit the electrical characteristics of 4H-SiC and to outperform conventional technologies. It has fewer transistors, simpler topology, and features simple-to-design complex gates. The circuit shows simulated gate delays as low as 3.3 ns at 27 °C/4.2 ns at 500 °C and noise margins higher than 1 V at 27 °C–500 °C. The proposed technology performs remarkably well across all performance parameters, validating its potential for cost effective, smaller footprint, simple to design, and easily reconfigurable digital ICs in SiC for small-scale logic applications.