Design of monostable–bistable transition logic element using the BiCMOS-based negative differential resistance circuit

Abstract

The monostable---bistable transition logic element (MOBILE) is a promising application for negative differential resistance (NDR) circuit. Previously reported MOBILE is constructed by resonant tunneling diode (RTD) that is implemented by the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) process. However in this paper, we first propose a NDR circuit composed of standard Si-based metal---oxide---semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOS) and SiGe-based heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT). Then we demonstrate the inverter, NAND, and NOR gate operations using this MOS---HBT---NDR-based MOBILE circuit. The great advantage of this NDR-based application is that we can implement it using the standard SiGe BiCMOS process without the need for the MBE system.