Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor ( CMOS , pronounced "sea-moss ", / s iː m ɑː s / , /- ɒ s / ) is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSFETs for logic functions. CMOS technology is used for constructing integrated circuit (IC) chips, including microprocessors , microcontrollers , memory chips (including CMOS BIOS ), and other digital logic circuits. CMOS technology is also used for analog circuits such as image sensors ( CMOS sensors ), data converters , RF circuits ( RF CMOS ), and highly integrated transceivers for many types of communication.
133-426: In electronics, emitter-coupled logic ( ECL ) is a high-speed integrated circuit bipolar transistor logic family . ECL uses an overdriven bipolar junction transistor (BJT) differential amplifier with single-ended input and limited emitter current to avoid the saturated (fully on) region of operation and the resulting slow turn-off behavior. As the current is steered between two legs of an emitter-coupled pair, ECL
266-528: A 3 μm process . The Hitachi HM6147 chip was able to match the performance (55/70 ns access) of the Intel 2147 HMOS chip, while the HM6147 also consumed significantly less power (15 mA ) than the 2147 (110 mA). With comparable performance and much less power consumption, the twin-well CMOS process eventually overtook NMOS as the most common semiconductor manufacturing process for computers in
399-419: A 350 nm CMOS process, while Hitachi and NEC commercialized 250 nm CMOS. Hitachi introduced a 160 nm CMOS process in 1995, then Mitsubishi introduced 150 nm CMOS in 1996, and then Samsung Electronics introduced 140 nm in 1999. In 2000, Gurtej Singh Sandhu and Trung T. Doan at Micron Technology invented atomic layer deposition High-κ dielectric films , leading to
532-492: A design flow that engineers use to design, verify, and analyze entire semiconductor chips. Some of the latest EDA tools use artificial intelligence (AI) to help engineers save time and improve chip performance. Integrated circuits can be broadly classified into analog , digital and mixed signal , consisting of analog and digital signaling on the same IC. Digital integrated circuits can contain billions of logic gates , flip-flops , multiplexers , and other circuits in
665-627: A fabrication facility (commonly known as a semiconductor fab ) can cost over US$ 12 billion to construct. The cost of a fabrication facility rises over time because of increased complexity of new products; this is known as Rock's law . Such a facility features: ICs can be manufactured either in-house by integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) or using the foundry model . IDMs are vertically integrated companies (like Intel and Samsung ) that design, manufacture and sell their own ICs, and may offer design and/or manufacturing (foundry) services to other companies (the latter often to fabless companies ). In
798-412: A microprocessor will have memory on the chip. (See the regular array structure at the bottom of the first image. ) Although the structures are intricate – with widths which have been shrinking for decades – the layers remain much thinner than the device widths. The layers of material are fabricated much like a photographic process, although light waves in the visible spectrum cannot be used to "expose"
931-471: A 20 μm semiconductor manufacturing process before gradually scaling to a 10 μm process over the next several years. CMOS technology was initially overlooked by the American semiconductor industry in favour of NMOS, which was more powerful at the time. However, CMOS was quickly adopted and further advanced by Japanese semiconductor manufacturers due to its low power consumption, leading to
1064-561: A CMOS IC chip for a Seiko quartz watch in 1969, and began mass-production with the launch of the Seiko Analog Quartz 38SQW watch in 1971. The first mass-produced CMOS consumer electronic product was the Hamilton Pulsar "Wrist Computer" digital watch, released in 1970. Due to low power consumption, CMOS logic has been widely used for calculators and watches since the 1970s. The earliest microprocessors in
1197-464: A CMOS circuit. This example shows a NAND logic device drawn as a physical representation as it would be manufactured. The physical layout perspective is a "bird's eye view" of a stack of layers. The circuit is constructed on a P-type substrate. The polysilicon , diffusion, and n-well are referred to as "base layers" and are actually inserted into trenches of the P-type substrate. (See steps 1 to 6 in
1330-482: A CMOS device: P = 0.5 C V 2 f {\displaystyle P=0.5CV^{2}f} . Since most gates do not operate/switch at every clock cycle , they are often accompanied by a factor α {\displaystyle \alpha } , called the activity factor. Now, the dynamic power dissipation may be re-written as P = α C V 2 f {\displaystyle P=\alpha CV^{2}f} . A clock in
1463-443: A PMOS transistor creates low resistance between its source and drain contacts when a low gate voltage is applied and high resistance when a high gate voltage is applied. On the other hand, the composition of an NMOS transistor creates high resistance between source and drain when a low gate voltage is applied and low resistance when a high gate voltage is applied. CMOS accomplishes current reduction by complementing every nMOSFET with
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#17327914614451596-401: A brief spike in power consumption and becomes a serious issue at high frequencies. The adjacent image shows what happens when an input is connected to both a PMOS transistor (top of diagram) and an NMOS transistor (bottom of diagram). Vdd is some positive voltage connected to a power supply and Vss is ground. A is the input and Q is the output. When the voltage of A is low (i.e. close to Vss),
1729-456: A close relative of CMOS. He invented complementary flip-flop and inverter circuits, but did no work in a more complex complementary logic. He was the first person able to put p-channel and n-channel TFTs in a circuit on the same substrate. Three years earlier, John T. Wallmark and Sanford M. Marcus published a variety of complex logic functions implemented as integrated circuits using JFETs , including complementary memory circuits. Frank Wanlass
1862-466: A common active area, but there was no electrical isolation to separate them from each other. The monolithic integrated circuit chip was enabled by the inventions of the planar process by Jean Hoerni and p–n junction isolation by Kurt Lehovec . Hoerni's invention was built on Carl Frosch and Lincoln Derick's work on surface protection and passivation by silicon dioxide masking and predeposition, as well as Fuller, Ditzenberger's and others work on
1995-561: A common substrate in a three-stage amplifier arrangement. Jacobi disclosed small and cheap hearing aids as typical industrial applications of his patent. An immediate commercial use of his patent has not been reported. Another early proponent of the concept was Geoffrey Dummer (1909–2002), a radar scientist working for the Royal Radar Establishment of the British Ministry of Defence . Dummer presented
2128-491: A few square millimeters. The small size of these circuits allows high speed, low power dissipation, and reduced manufacturing cost compared with board-level integration. These digital ICs, typically microprocessors , DSPs , and microcontrollers , use boolean algebra to process "one" and "zero" signals . Among the most advanced integrated circuits are the microprocessors or " cores ", used in personal computers, cell-phones, etc. Several cores may be integrated together in
2261-462: A high density of logic functions on a chip. It was primarily for this reason that CMOS became the most widely used technology to be implemented in VLSI chips. The phrase "metal–oxide–semiconductor" is a reference to the physical structure of MOS field-effect transistors , having a metal gate electrode placed on top of an oxide insulator, which in turn is on top of a semiconductor material . Aluminium
2394-428: A large transistor count . The IC's mass production capability, reliability, and building-block approach to integrated circuit design have ensured the rapid adoption of standardized ICs in place of designs using discrete transistors. ICs are now used in virtually all electronic equipment and have revolutionized the world of electronics . Computers, mobile phones, and other home appliances are now essential parts of
2527-408: A layer of material, as they would be too large for the features. Thus photons of higher frequencies (typically ultraviolet ) are used to create the patterns for each layer. Because each feature is so small, electron microscopes are essential tools for a process engineer who might be debugging a fabrication process. Each device is tested before packaging using automated test equipment (ATE), in
2660-485: A nanosecond, including the signal delay getting on and off the IC package. Some type of ECL has always been the fastest logic family. Radiation hardening : While normal commercial-grade chips can withstand 100 gray (10 krad), many ECL devices are operational after 100,000 gray (10 Mrad). ECL circuits usually operate with negative power supplies (positive end of the supply is connected to ground). Other logic families ground
2793-428: A number of steps for the p–n junction isolation of transistors on a chip, MOSFETs required no such steps but could be easily isolated from each other. Its advantage for integrated circuits was pointed out by Dawon Kahng in 1961. The list of IEEE milestones includes the first integrated circuit by Kilby in 1958, Hoerni's planar process and Noyce's planar IC in 1959. The earliest experimental MOS IC to be fabricated
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#17327914614452926-431: A pMOSFET and connecting both gates and both drains together. A high voltage on the gates will cause the nMOSFET to conduct and the pMOSFET not to conduct, while a low voltage on the gates causes the reverse. This arrangement greatly reduces power consumption and heat generation. However, during the switching time, both pMOS and nMOS MOSFETs conduct briefly as the gate voltage transitions from one state to another. This induces
3059-420: A process known as wafer testing , or wafer probing. The wafer is then cut into rectangular blocks, each of which is called a die . Each good die (plural dice , dies , or die ) is then connected into a package using aluminium (or gold) bond wires which are thermosonically bonded to pads , usually found around the edge of the die. Thermosonic bonding was first introduced by A. Coucoulas which provided
3192-421: A rate predicted by Moore's law , leading to large-scale integration (LSI) with hundreds of transistors on a single MOS chip by the late 1960s. Following the development of the self-aligned gate (silicon-gate) MOSFET by Robert Kerwin, Donald Klein and John Sarace at Bell Labs in 1967, the first silicon-gate MOS IC technology with self-aligned gates , the basis of all modern CMOS integrated circuits,
3325-512: A rectangular piece of silicon of often between 10 and 400 mm . CMOS always uses all enhancement-mode MOSFETs (in other words, a zero gate-to-source voltage turns the transistor off). CMOS circuits are constructed in such a way that all P-type metal–oxide–semiconductor (PMOS) transistors must have either an input from the voltage source or from another PMOS transistor. Similarly, all NMOS transistors must have either an input from ground or from another NMOS transistor. The composition of
3458-407: A reliable means of forming these vital electrical connections to the outside world. After packaging, the devices go through final testing on the same or similar ATE used during wafer probing. Industrial CT scanning can also be used. Test cost can account for over 25% of the cost of fabrication on lower-cost products, but can be negligible on low-yielding, larger, or higher-cost devices. As of 2022 ,
3591-426: A semiconductor to modulate its electronic properties. Doping is the process of adding dopants to a semiconductor material. Since a CMOS device only draws current on the transition between logic states , CMOS devices consume much less current than bipolar junction transistor devices. A random-access memory is the most regular type of integrated circuit; the highest density devices are thus memories; but even
3724-859: A single IC or chip. Digital memory chips and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are examples of other families of integrated circuits. In the 1980s, programmable logic devices were developed. These devices contain circuits whose logical function and connectivity can be programmed by the user, rather than being fixed by the integrated circuit manufacturer. This allows a chip to be programmed to do various LSI-type functions such as logic gates , adders and registers . Programmability comes in various forms – devices that can be programmed only once , devices that can be erased and then re-programmed using UV light , devices that can be (re)programmed using flash memory , and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) which can be programmed at any time, including during operation. Current FPGAs can (as of 2016) implement
3857-532: A single die. A technique has been demonstrated to include microfluidic cooling on integrated circuits, to improve cooling performance as well as peltier thermoelectric coolers on solder bumps, or thermal solder bumps used exclusively for heat dissipation, used in flip-chip . The cost of designing and developing a complex integrated circuit is quite high, normally in the multiple tens of millions of dollars. Therefore, it only makes economic sense to produce integrated circuit products with high production volume, so
3990-495: A single layer on one side of a chip of silicon in a flat two-dimensional planar process . Researchers have produced prototypes of several promising alternatives, such as: As it becomes more difficult to manufacture ever smaller transistors, companies are using multi-chip modules / chiplets , three-dimensional integrated circuits , package on package , High Bandwidth Memory and through-silicon vias with die stacking to increase performance and reduce size, without having to reduce
4123-486: A six-pin device. Radios with the Loewe 3NF were less expensive than other radios, showing one of the advantages of integration over using discrete components , that would be seen decades later with ICs. Early concepts of an integrated circuit go back to 1949, when German engineer Werner Jacobi ( Siemens AG ) filed a patent for an integrated-circuit-like semiconductor amplifying device showing five transistors on
Emitter-coupled logic - Misplaced Pages Continue
4256-413: A small period of time in which current will find a path directly from V DD to ground, hence creating a short-circuit current , sometimes called a crowbar current. Short-circuit power dissipation increases with the rise and fall time of the transistors. This form of power consumption became significant in the 1990s as wires on chip became narrower and the long wires became more resistive. CMOS gates at
4389-512: A small piece of semiconductor material, usually silicon . Integrated circuits are used in a wide range of electronic devices, including computers , smartphones , and televisions , to perform various functions such as processing and storing information. They have greatly impacted the field of electronics by enabling device miniaturization and enhanced functionality. Integrated circuits are orders of magnitude smaller, faster, and less expensive than those constructed of discrete components, allowing
4522-425: A system has an activity factor α=1, since it rises and falls every cycle. Most data has an activity factor of 0.1. If correct load capacitance is estimated on a node together with its activity factor, the dynamic power dissipation at that node can be calculated effectively. Since there is a finite rise/fall time for both pMOS and nMOS, during transition, for example, from off to on, both the transistors will be on for
4655-443: A trade-off for devices to become slower. To speed up designs, manufacturers have switched to constructions that have lower voltage thresholds but because of this a modern NMOS transistor with a V th of 200 mV has a significant subthreshold leakage current. Designs (e.g. desktop processors) which include vast numbers of circuits which are not actively switching still consume power because of this leakage current. Leakage power
4788-505: A year after Kilby, Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor invented the first true monolithic IC chip. More practical than Kilby's implementation, Noyce's chip was made of silicon , whereas Kilby's was made of germanium , and Noyce's was fabricated using the planar process , developed in early 1959 by his colleague Jean Hoerni and included the critical on-chip aluminum interconnecting lines. Modern IC chips are based on Noyce's monolithic IC, rather than Kilby's. NASA's Apollo Program
4921-471: Is a significant portion of the total power consumed by such designs. Multi-threshold CMOS (MTCMOS), now available from foundries, is one approach to managing leakage power. With MTCMOS, high V th transistors are used when switching speed is not critical, while low V th transistors are used in speed sensitive paths. Further technology advances that use even thinner gate dielectrics have an additional leakage component because of current tunnelling through
5054-582: Is a vital requirement. Older high-end mainframe computers, such as the Enterprise System/9000 members of IBM's ESA/390 computer family, used ECL, as did the Cray-1 ; and first-generation Amdahl mainframes. (Current IBM mainframes use CMOS .) Beginning in 1975, Digital Equipment Corporation 's highest performance processors were all based on multi-chip ECL CPUs—from the ECL KL10 through
5187-511: Is called source-coupled logic (SCFL). A variation of ECL in which all signal paths and gate inputs are differential is known as differential current switch (DCS) logic. ECL was invented in August 1956 at IBM by Hannon S. Yourke. Originally called current-steering logic , it was used in the Stretch , IBM 7090 , and IBM 7094 computers. The logic was also called a current-mode circuit. It
5320-405: Is connected to V SS and an N-type n-well tap is connected to V DD to prevent latchup . CMOS logic dissipates less power than NMOS logic circuits because CMOS dissipates power only when switching ("dynamic power"). On a typical ASIC in a modern 90 nanometer process, switching the output might take 120 picoseconds, and happens once every ten nanoseconds. NMOS logic dissipates power whenever
5453-461: Is connected together in metal (illustrated in cyan coloring). Connections between metal and polysilicon or diffusion are made through contacts (illustrated as black squares). The physical layout example matches the NAND logic circuit given in the previous example. The N device is manufactured on a P-type substrate while the P device is manufactured in an N-type well (n-well). A P-type substrate "tap"
Emitter-coupled logic - Misplaced Pages Continue
5586-541: Is high. In addition, the essentially constant current draw of the differential amplifiers minimises delays and glitches due to supply-line inductance and capacitance, and the complementary outputs decrease the propagation time of the whole circuit by reducing inverter count. ECL's major disadvantage is that each gate continuously draws current, which means that it requires (and dissipates) significantly more power than those of other logic families, especially when quiescent. The equivalent of emitter-coupled logic made from FETs
5719-399: Is low because the chips, with all their components, are printed as a unit by photolithography rather than being constructed one transistor at a time. Furthermore, packaged ICs use much less material than discrete circuits. Performance is high because the IC's components switch quickly and consume comparatively little power because of their small size and proximity. The main disadvantage of ICs
5852-690: Is obsolete. An early attempt at combining several components in one device (like modern ICs) was the Loewe 3NF vacuum tube first made in 1926. Unlike ICs, it was designed with the purpose of tax avoidance , as in Germany, radio receivers had a tax that was levied depending on how many tube holders a radio receiver had. It allowed radio receivers to have a single tube holder. One million were manufactured, and were "a first step in integration of radioelectronic devices". The device contained an amplifier , composed of three triodes, two capacitors and four resistors in
5985-413: Is overdriven. The transistor (T1 or T3) is cutoff and the other (T3 or T1) is in active linear region acting as a common-emitter stage with emitter degeneration that takes all the current, starving the other cutoff transistor. The active transistor is loaded with the relatively high emitter resistance R E that introduces a significant negative feedback (emitter degeneration). To prevent saturation of
6118-413: Is protection of the output transistors from an accidental short circuit developing between output and ground (but the outputs are not protected from a short circuit with the negative rail). The value of the supply voltage is chosen so that sufficient current flows through the compensating diodes D1 and D2 and the voltage drop across the common emitter resistor R E is adequate. ECL circuits available on
6251-402: Is sometimes called current-steering logic (CSL), current-mode logic (CML) or current-switch emitter-follower (CSEF) logic. In ECL, the transistors are never in saturation, the input and output voltages have a small swing (0.8 V), the input impedance is high and the output impedance is low. As a result, the transistors change states quickly, gate delays are low, and the fanout capability
6384-426: Is that PECL devices are slightly different from ECL devices. In fact, every ECL device is also a PECL device. Logic levels: Integrated circuit An integrated circuit ( IC ), also known as a microchip , computer chip , or simply chip , is a small electronic device made up of multiple interconnected electronic components such as transistors , resistors , and capacitors . These components are etched onto
6517-469: Is that both low-to-high and high-to-low output transitions are fast since the (PMOS) pull-up transistors have low resistance when switched on, unlike the load resistors in NMOS logic. In addition, the output signal swings the full voltage between the low and high rails. This strong, more nearly symmetric response also makes CMOS more resistant to noise. See Logical effort for a method of calculating delay in
6650-450: Is the duality that exists between its PMOS transistors and NMOS transistors. A CMOS circuit is created to allow a path always to exist from the output to either the power source or ground. To accomplish this, the set of all paths to the voltage source must be the complement of the set of all paths to ground. This can be easily accomplished by defining one in terms of the NOT of the other. Due to
6783-413: Is the high initial cost of designing them and the enormous capital cost of factory construction. This high initial cost means ICs are only commercially viable when high production volumes are anticipated. An integrated circuit is defined as: A circuit in which all or some of the circuit elements are inseparably associated and electrically interconnected so that it is considered to be indivisible for
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#17327914614456916-460: Is very small compared to sub threshold and tunnelling currents, so these may be neglected during power calculations. If the ratios do not match, then there might be different currents of PMOS and NMOS; this may lead to imbalance and thus improper current causes the CMOS to heat up and dissipate power unnecessarily. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that leakage power reduces due to aging effects as
7049-504: The International Solid-State Circuits Conference in 1963. Wanlass later filed US patent 3,356,858 for CMOS circuitry and it was granted in 1967. RCA commercialized the technology with the trademark "COS-MOS" in the late 1960s, forcing other manufacturers to find another name, leading to "CMOS" becoming the standard name for the technology by the early 1970s. CMOS overtook NMOS logic as
7182-476: The dual in-line package (DIP), first in ceramic and later in plastic, which is commonly cresol - formaldehyde - novolac . In the 1980s pin counts of VLSI circuits exceeded the practical limit for DIP packaging, leading to pin grid array (PGA) and leadless chip carrier (LCC) packages. Surface mount packaging appeared in the early 1980s and became popular in the late 1980s, using finer lead pitch with leads formed as either gull-wing or J-lead, as exemplified by
7315-488: The non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs are spread across typically millions of production units. Modern semiconductor chips have billions of components, and are far too complex to be designed by hand. Software tools to help the designer are essential. Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems , including integrated circuits. The tools work together in
7448-498: The periodic table of the chemical elements were identified as the most likely materials for a solid-state vacuum tube . Starting with copper oxide , proceeding to germanium , then silicon , the materials were systematically studied in the 1940s and 1950s. Today, monocrystalline silicon is the main substrate used for ICs although some III-V compounds of the periodic table such as gallium arsenide are used for specialized applications like LEDs , lasers , solar cells and
7581-544: The small-outline integrated circuit (SOIC) package – a carrier which occupies an area about 30–50% less than an equivalent DIP and is typically 70% thinner. This package has "gull wing" leads protruding from the two long sides and a lead spacing of 0.050 inches. In the late 1990s, plastic quad flat pack (PQFP) and thin small-outline package (TSOP) packages became the most common for high pin count devices, though PGA packages are still used for high-end microprocessors . Ball grid array (BGA) packages have existed since
7714-416: The switching power consumption per transistor goes down, while the memory capacity and speed go up, through the relationships defined by Dennard scaling ( MOSFET scaling ). Because speed, capacity, and power consumption gains are apparent to the end user, there is fierce competition among the manufacturers to use finer geometries. Over the years, transistor sizes have decreased from tens of microns in
7847-503: The very large-scale integration (VLSI) of more than 10,000 transistors on a single chip. At first, MOS-based computers only made sense when high density was required, such as aerospace and pocket calculators . Computers built entirely from TTL, such as the 1970 Datapoint 2200 , were much faster and more powerful than single-chip MOS microprocessors such as the 1972 Intel 8008 until the early 1980s. Advances in IC technology, primarily smaller features and larger chips, have allowed
7980-608: The 10,000 series (with lower power consumption and controlled edge speeds) in 1971. The MECL 10H family was introduced in 1981. Fairchild introduced the F100K family in 1975. The ECLinPS ("ECL in picoseconds") family was introduced in 1987. ECLinPS has 500 ps single-gate delay and 1.1 GHz flip-flop toggle frequency. The ECLinPS family parts are available from multiple sources, including Arizona Microtek, Micrel, National Semiconductor, and ON Semiconductor. The high power consumption of ECL meant that it has been used mainly when high speed
8113-425: The 1970s. Flip-chip Ball Grid Array packages, which allow for a much higher pin count than other package types, were developed in the 1990s. In an FCBGA package, the die is mounted upside-down (flipped) and connects to the package balls via a package substrate that is similar to a printed-circuit board rather than by wires. FCBGA packages allow an array of input-output signals (called Area-I/O) to be distributed over
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#17327914614458246-431: The 1970s. The Intel 5101 (1 kb SRAM ) CMOS memory chip (1974) had an access time of 800 ns , whereas the fastest NMOS chip at the time, the Intel 2147 (4 kb SRAM) HMOS memory chip (1976), had an access time of 55/70 ns. In 1978, a Hitachi research team led by Toshiaki Masuhara introduced the twin-well Hi-CMOS process, with its HM6147 (4 kb SRAM) memory chip, manufactured with
8379-488: The 1980s. In the 1980s, CMOS microprocessors overtook NMOS microprocessors. NASA 's Galileo spacecraft, sent to orbit Jupiter in 1989, used the RCA 1802 CMOS microprocessor due to low power consumption. Intel introduced a 1.5 μm process for CMOS semiconductor device fabrication in 1983. In the mid-1980s, Bijan Davari of IBM developed high-performance, low-voltage, deep sub-micron CMOS technology, which enabled
8512-482: The 22 nm node (Intel) or 16/14 nm nodes. Mono-crystal silicon wafers are used in most applications (or for special applications, other semiconductors such as gallium arsenide are used). The wafer need not be entirely silicon. Photolithography is used to mark different areas of the substrate to be doped or to have polysilicon, insulators or metal (typically aluminium or copper) tracks deposited on them. Dopants are impurities intentionally introduced to
8645-466: The A or B inputs is low, one of the NMOS transistors will not conduct, one of the PMOS transistors will, and a conductive path will be established between the output and V dd (voltage source), bringing the output high. As the only configuration of the two inputs that results in a low output is when both are high, this circuit implements a NAND (NOT AND) logic gate. An advantage of CMOS over NMOS logic
8778-456: The CMOS device. Clamp diodes are included in CMOS circuits to deal with these signals. Manufacturers' data sheets specify the maximum permitted current that may flow through the diodes. Besides digital applications, CMOS technology is also used in analog applications. For example, there are CMOS operational amplifier ICs available in the market. Transmission gates may be used as analog multiplexers instead of signal relays . CMOS technology
8911-627: The ECL VAX 8000 and finally the VAX 9000 . By 1991, the CMOS NVAX was launched which offered comparable performance to the VAX 9000 despite costing 25 times less and consuming considerably less power. The MIPS R6000 computers also used ECL. Some of these computer designs used ECL gate arrays . ECL is based on an emitter-coupled ( long-tailed ) pair, shaded red in the figure on the right. The left half of
9044-455: The MOSFET pair is always off, the series combination draws significant power only momentarily during switching between on and off states. Consequently, CMOS devices do not produce as much waste heat as other forms of logic, like NMOS logic or transistor–transistor logic (TTL), which normally have some standing current even when not changing state. These characteristics allow CMOS to integrate
9177-450: The NMOS transistor's channel is in a high resistance state, disconnecting Vss from Q. The PMOS transistor's channel is in a low resistance state, connecting Vdd to Q. Q, therefore, registers Vdd. On the other hand, when the voltage of A is high (i.e. close to Vdd), the PMOS transistor is in a high resistance state, disconnecting Vdd from Q. The NMOS transistor is in a low resistance state, connecting Vss to Q. Now, Q registers Vss. In short,
9310-416: The PMOS transistors (top half) will conduct, and a conductive path will be established between the output and V ss (ground), bringing the output low. If both of the A and B inputs are low, then neither of the NMOS transistors will conduct, while both of the PMOS transistors will conduct, establishing a conductive path between the output and V dd (voltage source), bringing the output high. If either of
9443-399: The active transistor so that the diffusion time that slows the recovery from saturation will not be involved in the logic delay, the emitter and collector resistances are chosen such that at maximum input voltage some voltage is left across the transistor. The residual gain is low ( K = R C / R E < 1). The circuit is insensitive to the input voltage variations and
9576-433: The bases of the input transistors and −2 V act as emitter resistors. The ECL circuit operation is considered below with assumption that the input voltage is applied to T1 base, while T2 input is unused or a logical "0" is applied. During the transition , the core of the circuit – the emitter-coupled pair (T1 and T3) – acts as a differential amplifier with single-ended input. The "long-tail" current source (R E ) sets
9709-414: The best performance per watt each year have been CMOS static logic since 1976. As of 2019, planar CMOS technology is still the most common form of semiconductor device fabrication, but is gradually being replaced by non-planar FinFET technology, which is capable of manufacturing semiconductor nodes smaller than 20 nm . "CMOS" refers to both a particular style of digital circuitry design and
9842-440: The collector resistors change slightly (in the case of emitter constant current source, they do not change at all). As the collector resistors are firmly "tied up" to ground, the output voltages "move" slightly (or not at all). If the negative end of the power supply was grounded, the collector resistors would be attached to the positive rail. As the constant voltage drops across the collector resistors change slightly (or not at all),
9975-479: The components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated". The first customer for the new invention was the US Air Force . Kilby won the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit. However, Kilby's invention was not a true monolithic integrated circuit chip since it had external gold-wire connections, which would have made it difficult to mass-produce. Half
10108-412: The concept of an inversion layer, forms the basis of CMOS technology today. A new type of MOSFET logic combining both the PMOS and NMOS processes was developed, called complementary MOS (CMOS), by Chih-Tang Sah and Frank Wanlass at Fairchild. In February 1963, they published the invention in a research paper . In both the research paper and the patent filed by Wanlass, the fabrication of CMOS devices
10241-430: The corresponding supply voltage, modelling an AND. When a path consists of two transistors in parallel, either one or both of the transistors must have low resistance to connect the supply voltage to the output, modelling an OR. Shown on the right is a circuit diagram of a NAND gate in CMOS logic. If both of the A and B inputs are high, then both the NMOS transistors (bottom half of the diagram) will conduct, neither of
10374-473: The desktop Datapoint 2200 were built from bipolar integrated circuits, either TTL or the even faster emitter-coupled logic (ECL). Nearly all modern IC chips are metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuits, built from MOSFETs (metal–oxide–silicon field-effect transistors). The MOSFET invented at Bell Labs between 1955 and 1960, made it possible to build high-density integrated circuits . In contrast to bipolar transistors which required
10507-433: The development of a cost-effective 90 nm CMOS process. Toshiba and Sony developed a 65 nm CMOS process in 2002, and then TSMC initiated the development of 45 nm CMOS logic in 2004. The development of pitch double patterning by Gurtej Singh Sandhu at Micron Technology led to the development of 30 nm class CMOS in the 2000s. CMOS is used in most modern LSI and VLSI devices. As of 2010, CPUs with
10640-416: The development of faster computers as well as portable computers and battery-powered handheld electronics . In 1988, Davari led an IBM team that demonstrated a high-performance 250 nanometer CMOS process. Fujitsu commercialized a 700 nm CMOS process in 1987, and then Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric , NEC and Toshiba commercialized 500 nm CMOS in 1989. In 1993, Sony commercialized
10773-477: The device; M. O. Thurston, L. A. D'Asaro, and J. R. Ligenza who developed the diffusion processes, and H. K. Gummel and R. Lindner who characterized the device. There were originally two types of MOSFET logic, PMOS ( p-type MOS) and NMOS ( n-type MOS). Both types were developed by Frosch and Derrick in 1957 at Bell Labs. In 1948, Bardeen and Brattain patented the progenitor of MOSFET, an insulated-gate FET (IGFET) with an inversion layer. Bardeen's patent, and
10906-418: The die must pass through the material electrically connecting the die to the package, through the conductive traces (paths) in the package, through the leads connecting the package to the conductive traces on the printed circuit board . The materials and structures used in the path these electrical signals must travel have very different electrical properties, compared to those that travel to different parts of
11039-541: The diffusion of impurities into silicon. A precursor idea to the IC was to create small ceramic substrates (so-called micromodules ), each containing a single miniaturized component. Components could then be integrated and wired into a bidimensional or tridimensional compact grid. This idea, which seemed very promising in 1957, was proposed to the US Army by Jack Kilby and led to the short-lived Micromodule Program (similar to 1951's Project Tinkertoy). However, as
11172-545: The dominant MOSFET fabrication process for very large-scale integration (VLSI) chips in the 1980s, also replacing earlier transistor–transistor logic (TTL) technology. CMOS has since remained the standard fabrication process for MOSFET semiconductor devices in VLSI chips. As of 2011 , 99% of IC chips, including most digital , analog and mixed-signal ICs, were fabricated using CMOS technology. Two important characteristics of CMOS devices are high noise immunity and low static power consumption . Since one transistor of
11305-537: The early 1970s to 10 nanometers in 2017 with a corresponding million-fold increase in transistors per unit area. As of 2016, typical chip areas range from a few square millimeters to around 600 mm , with up to 25 million transistors per mm . The expected shrinking of feature sizes and the needed progress in related areas was forecast for many years by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). The final ITRS
11438-483: The early 1970s were PMOS processors, which initially dominated the early microprocessor industry. By the late 1970s, NMOS microprocessors had overtaken PMOS processors. CMOS microprocessors were introduced in 1975, with the Intersil 6100 , and RCA CDP 1801 . However, CMOS processors did not become dominant until the 1980s. CMOS was initially slower than NMOS logic , thus NMOS was more widely used for computers in
11571-476: The emitter voltages are kept relatively steady. As a result, the common emitter resistor R E acts nearly as a current source . The output voltages at the collector load resistors R C1 and R C3 are shifted and buffered to the inverting and non-inverting outputs by the emitter followers T4 and T5 (shaded blue). The output emitter resistors R E4 and R E5 do not exist in all versions of ECL. In some cases 50 Ω line termination resistors connected between
11704-444: The end of those resistive wires see slow input transitions. Careful design which avoids weakly driven long skinny wires reduces this effect, but crowbar power can be a substantial part of dynamic CMOS power. Parasitic transistors that are inherent in the CMOS structure may be turned on by input signals outside the normal operating range, e.g. electrostatic discharges or line reflections . The resulting latch-up may damage or destroy
11837-541: The entire die rather than being confined to the die periphery. BGA devices have the advantage of not needing a dedicated socket but are much harder to replace in case of device failure. Intel transitioned away from PGA to land grid array (LGA) and BGA beginning in 2004, with the last PGA socket released in 2014 for mobile platforms. As of 2018 , AMD uses PGA packages on mainstream desktop processors, BGA packages on mobile processors, and high-end desktop and server microprocessors use LGA packages. Electrical signals leaving
11970-580: The equivalent of millions of gates and operate at frequencies up to 1 GHz . Analog ICs, such as sensors , power management circuits , and operational amplifiers (op-amps), process continuous signals , and perform analog functions such as amplification , active filtering , demodulation , and mixing . ICs can combine analog and digital circuits on a chip to create functions such as analog-to-digital converters and digital-to-analog converters . Such mixed-signal circuits offer smaller size and lower cost, but must account for signal interference. Prior to
12103-585: The extremely thin gate dielectric. Using high-κ dielectrics instead of silicon dioxide that is the conventional gate dielectric allows similar device performance, but with a thicker gate insulator, thus avoiding this current. Leakage power reduction using new material and system designs is critical to sustaining scaling of CMOS. CMOS circuits dissipate power by charging the various load capacitances (mostly gate and wire capacitance, but also drain and some source capacitances) whenever they are switched. In one complete cycle of CMOS logic, current flows from V DD to
12236-481: The fact that the large current requirement is approximately constant, and does not depend significantly on the state of the circuit. This means that ECL circuits generate relatively little power noise, unlike other logic types which draw more current when switching than quiescent. In cryptographic applications, ECL circuits are also less susceptible to side channel attacks such as differential power analysis . The propagation time for this arrangement can be less than
12369-411: The family of processes used to implement that circuitry on integrated circuits (chips). CMOS circuitry dissipates less power than logic families with resistive loads. Since this advantage has increased and grown more important, CMOS processes and variants have come to dominate, thus the vast majority of modern integrated circuit manufacturing is on CMOS processes. CMOS logic consumes around one seventh
12502-412: The foundry model, fabless companies (like Nvidia ) only design and sell ICs and outsource all manufacturing to pure play foundries such as TSMC . These foundries may offer IC design services. The earliest integrated circuits were packaged in ceramic flat packs , which continued to be used by the military for their reliability and small size for many years. Commercial circuit packaging quickly moved to
12635-568: The highest-speed integrated circuits. It took decades to perfect methods of creating crystals with minimal defects in semiconducting materials' crystal structure . Semiconductor ICs are fabricated in a planar process which includes three key process steps – photolithography , deposition (such as chemical vapor deposition ), and etching . The main process steps are supplemented by doping and cleaning. More recent or high-performance ICs may instead use multi-gate FinFET or GAAFET transistors instead of planar ones, starting at
12768-602: The idea to the public at the Symposium on Progress in Quality Electronic Components in Washington, D.C. , on 7 May 1952. He gave many symposia publicly to propagate his ideas and unsuccessfully attempted to build such a circuit in 1956. Between 1953 and 1957, Sidney Darlington and Yasuo Tarui ( Electrotechnical Laboratory ) proposed similar chip designs where several transistors could share
12901-522: The input. The transistors' resistances are never exactly equal to zero or infinity, so Q will never exactly equal Vss or Vdd, but Q will always be closer to Vss than A was to Vdd (or vice versa if A were close to Vss). Without this amplification, there would be a very low limit to the number of logic gates that could be chained together in series, and CMOS logic with billions of transistors would be impossible. The power supply pins for CMOS are called V DD and V SS , or V CC and Ground(GND) depending on
13034-421: The late 1990s, radios could not be fabricated in the same low-cost CMOS processes as microprocessors. But since 1998, radio chips have been developed using RF CMOS processes. Examples include Intel's DECT cordless phone, or 802.11 ( Wi-Fi ) chips created by Atheros and other companies. Modern electronic component distributors often further sub-categorize integrated circuits: The semiconductors of
13167-425: The load capacitance to charge it and then flows from the charged load capacitance (C L ) to ground during discharge. Therefore, in one complete charge/discharge cycle, a total of Q=C L V DD is thus transferred from V DD to ground. Multiply by the switching frequency on the load capacitances to get the current used, and multiply by the average voltage again to get the characteristic switching power dissipated by
13300-444: The logic based on De Morgan's laws , the PMOS transistors in parallel have corresponding NMOS transistors in series while the PMOS transistors in series have corresponding NMOS transistors in parallel. More complex logic functions such as those involving AND and OR gates require manipulating the paths between gates to represent the logic. When a path consists of two transistors in series, both transistors must have low resistance to
13433-581: The manufacturer's own products. The power supplies were substantially different from those used in the open market. Positive emitter-coupled logic , also called pseudo-ECL , (PECL) is a further development of ECL using a positive 5 V supply instead of a negative 5.2 V supply. Low-voltage positive emitter-coupled logic (LVPECL) is a power-optimized version of PECL, using a positive 3.3 V instead of 5 V supply. PECL and LVPECL are differential-signaling systems and are mainly used in high-speed and clock-distribution circuits. A common misconception
13566-408: The manufacturer. V DD and V SS are carryovers from conventional MOS circuits and stand for the drain and source supplies. These do not apply directly to CMOS, since both supplies are really source supplies. V CC and Ground are carryovers from TTL logic and that nomenclature has been retained with the introduction of the 54C/74C line of CMOS. An important characteristic of a CMOS circuit
13699-407: The negative end of the power supply. This is done mainly to minimize the influence of the power supply variations on the logic levels. ECL is more sensitive to noise on the V CC and is relatively immune to noise on V EE . Because ground should be the most stable voltage in a system, ECL is specified with a positive ground. In this connection, when the supply voltage varies, the voltage drops across
13832-433: The number of MOS transistors in an integrated circuit to double every two years, a trend known as Moore's law. Moore originally stated it would double every year, but he went on to change the claim to every two years in 1975. This increased capacity has been used to decrease cost and increase functionality. In general, as the feature size shrinks, almost every aspect of an IC's operation improves. The cost per transistor and
13965-433: The open market usually operated with logic levels incompatible with other families. This meant that interoperation between ECL and other logic families, such as the popular TTL family, required additional interface circuits. The fact that the high and low logic levels are relatively close meant that ECL suffers from small noise margins, which can be troublesome. At least one manufacturer, IBM , made ECL circuits for use in
14098-716: The output logic levels to be the same as the input logic levels. Beginning in the early 1960s, ECL circuits were implemented on monolithic integrated circuits and consisted of a differential-amplifier input stage to perform logic and followed by an emitter-follower stage to drive outputs and shift the output voltages so they will be compatible with the inputs. The emitter-follower output stages could also be used to perform wired-or logic . Motorola introduced their first digital monolithic integrated circuit line, MECL I, in 1962. Motorola developed several improved series, with MECL II in 1966, MECL III in 1968 with 1-nanosecond gate propagation time and 300 MHz flip-flop toggle rates, and
14231-421: The output voltages follow the supply voltage variations and the two circuit parts act as constant current level shifters. In this case, the voltage divider R1-R2 compensates the voltage variations to some extent. The positive power supply has another disadvantage — the output voltages will vary slightly (±0.4 V) against the background of high constant voltage (+3.9 V). Another reason for using a negative power supply
14364-401: The outputs of the PMOS and NMOS transistors are complementary such that when the input is low, the output is high, and when the input is high, the output is low. No matter what the input is, the output is never left floating (charge is never stored due to wire capacitance and lack of electrical drain/ground). Because of this behavior of input and output, the CMOS circuit's output is the inverse of
14497-414: The pair (shaded yellow) consists of two parallel-connected input transistors T1 and T2 (an exemplary two-input gate is considered) implementing NOR logic. The base voltage of the right transistor T3 is held fixed by a reference voltage source, shaded light green: the voltage divider with a diode thermal compensation (R1, R2, D1 and D2) and sometimes a buffering emitter follower (not shown on the picture); thus
14630-583: The power consumption per unit area of the chip has risen tremendously. Broadly classifying, power dissipation in CMOS circuits occurs because of two components, static and dynamic: Both NMOS and PMOS transistors have a gate–source threshold voltage (V th ), below which the current (called sub threshold current) through the device will drop exponentially. Historically, CMOS circuits operated at supply voltages much larger than their threshold voltages (V dd might have been 5 V, and V th for both NMOS and PMOS might have been 700 mV). A special type of
14763-479: The power of NMOS logic , and about 10 million times less power than bipolar transistor-transistor logic (TTL). CMOS circuits use a combination of p-type and n-type metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFETs) to implement logic gates and other digital circuits. Although CMOS logic can be implemented with discrete devices for demonstrations, commercial CMOS products are integrated circuits composed of up to billions of transistors of both types, on
14896-516: The process diagram below right) The contacts penetrate an insulating layer between the base layers and the first layer of metal (metal1) making a connection. The inputs to the NAND (illustrated in green color) are in polysilicon. The transistors (devices) are formed by the intersection of the polysilicon and diffusion; N diffusion for the N device & P diffusion for the P device (illustrated in salmon and yellow coloring respectively). The output ("out")
15029-497: The project was gaining momentum, Kilby came up with a new, revolutionary design: the IC. Newly employed by Texas Instruments , Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning the integrated circuit in July 1958, successfully demonstrating the first working example of an integrated circuit on 12 September 1958. In his patent application of 6 February 1959, Kilby described his new device as "a body of semiconductor material … wherein all
15162-592: The purposes of construction and commerce. In strict usage, integrated circuit refers to the single-piece circuit construction originally known as a monolithic integrated circuit , which comprises a single piece of silicon. In general usage, circuits not meeting this strict definition are sometimes referred to as ICs, which are constructed using many different technologies, e.g. 3D IC , 2.5D IC , MCM , thin-film transistors , thick-film technologies , or hybrid integrated circuits . The choice of terminology frequently appears in discussions related to whether Moore's Law
15295-484: The rise of the Japanese semiconductor industry. Toshiba developed C MOS (Clocked CMOS), a circuit technology with lower power consumption and faster operating speed than ordinary CMOS, in 1969. Toshiba used its C MOS technology to develop a large-scale integration (LSI) chip for Sharp 's Elsi Mini LED pocket calculator , developed in 1971 and released in 1972. Suwa Seikosha (now Seiko Epson ) began developing
15428-454: The same die. As a result, they require special design techniques to ensure the signals are not corrupted, and much more electric power than signals confined to the die itself. CMOS In 1948, Bardeen and Brattain patented an insulated-gate transistor (IGFET) with an inversion layer. Bardeen's concept forms the basis of CMOS technology today. The CMOS process was presented by Fairchild Semiconductor 's Frank Wanlass and Chih-Tang Sah at
15561-449: The same size – a modern chip may have many billions of transistors in an area the size of a human fingernail. These advances, roughly following Moore's law , make the computer chips of today possess millions of times the capacity and thousands of times the speed of the computer chips of the early 1970s. ICs have three main advantages over circuits constructed out of discrete components: size, cost and performance. The size and cost
15694-474: The size of the transistors. Such techniques are collectively known as advanced packaging . Advanced packaging is mainly divided into 2.5D and 3D packaging. 2.5D describes approaches such as multi-chip modules while 3D describes approaches where dies are stacked in one way or another, such as package on package and high bandwidth memory. All approaches involve 2 or more dies in a single package. Alternatively, approaches such as 3D NAND stack multiple layers on
15827-445: The structure of modern societies, made possible by the small size and low cost of ICs such as modern computer processors and microcontrollers . Very-large-scale integration was made practical by technological advancements in semiconductor device fabrication . Since their origins in the 1960s, the size, speed, and capacity of chips have progressed enormously, driven by technical advances that fit more and more transistors on chips of
15960-424: The total current flowing through the two legs of the pair. The input voltage controls the current flowing through the transistors by sharing it between the two legs, steering it all to one side when not near the switching point. The gain is higher than at the end states (see below) and the circuit switches quickly. At low input voltage (logical "0") or at high input voltage (logical "1") the differential amplifier
16093-434: The transistor is on, because there is a current path from V dd to V ss through the load resistor and the n-type network. Static CMOS gates are very power efficient because they dissipate nearly zero power when idle. Earlier, the power consumption of CMOS devices was not the major concern while designing chips. Factors like speed and area dominated the design parameters. As the CMOS technology moved below sub-micron levels
16226-453: The transistor stays firmly in active linear region. The input resistance is high because of the series negative feedback. The cutoff transistor breaks the connection between its input and output. As a result, its input voltage does not affect the output voltage. The input resistance is high again since the base-emitter junction is cutoff. Other noteworthy characteristics of the ECL family include
16359-659: The transistor used in some CMOS circuits is the native transistor , with near zero threshold voltage . SiO 2 is a good insulator, but at very small thickness levels electrons can tunnel across the very thin insulation; the probability drops off exponentially with oxide thickness. Tunnelling current becomes very important for transistors below 130 nm technology with gate oxides of 20 Å or thinner. Small reverse leakage currents are formed due to formation of reverse bias between diffusion regions and wells (for e.g., p-type diffusion vs. n-well), wells and substrate (for e.g., n-well vs. p-substrate). In modern process diode leakage
16492-438: The two logic reference levels differed by 3 volts. Consequently, two complementary versions were used: an NPN version and a PNP version. The NPN output could drive PNP inputs, and vice versa. "The disadvantages are that more different power supply voltages are needed, and both pnp and npn transistors are required." Instead of alternating NPN and PNP stages, another coupling method employed Zener diodes and resistors to shift
16625-413: The wafer. J.R. Ligenza and W.G. Spitzer studied the mechanism of thermally grown oxides and fabricated a high quality Si/ SiO 2 stack in 1960. Following this research, Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng proposed a silicon MOS transistor in 1959 and successfully demonstrated a working MOS device with their Bell Labs team in 1960. Their team included E. E. LaBate and E. I. Povilonis who fabricated
16758-401: Was a 16-transistor chip built by Fred Heiman and Steven Hofstein at RCA in 1962. General Microelectronics later introduced the first commercial MOS integrated circuit in 1964, a 120-transistor shift register developed by Robert Norman. By 1964, MOS chips had reached higher transistor density and lower manufacturing costs than bipolar chips. MOS chips further increased in complexity at
16891-544: Was also used to make the IBM Advanced Solid Logic Technology (ASLT) circuits in the IBM 360/91. Yourke's current switch was a differential amplifier whose input logic levels were different from the output logic levels. "In current mode operation, however, the output signal consists of voltage levels which vary about a reference level different from the input reference level." In Yourke's design,
17024-441: Was developed at Fairchild Semiconductor by Federico Faggin in 1968. The application of MOS LSI chips to computing was the basis for the first microprocessors , as engineers began recognizing that a complete computer processor could be contained on a single MOS LSI chip. This led to the inventions of the microprocessor and the microcontroller by the early 1970s. During the early 1970s, MOS integrated circuit technology enabled
17157-442: Was familiar with work done by Weimer at RCA. In 1955, Carl Frosch and Lincoln Derick accidentally grew a layer of silicon dioxide over the silicon wafer, for which they observed surface passivation effects. By 1957 Frosch and Derrick, using masking and predeposition, were able to manufacture silicon dioxide transistors and showed that silicon dioxide insulated, protected silicon wafers and prevented dopants from diffusing into
17290-514: Was issued in 2016, and it is being replaced by the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems . Initially, ICs were strictly electronic devices. The success of ICs has led to the integration of other technologies, in an attempt to obtain the same advantages of small size and low cost. These technologies include mechanical devices, optics, and sensors. As of 2018 , the vast majority of all transistors are MOSFETs fabricated in
17423-489: Was once used but now the material is polysilicon . Other metal gates have made a comeback with the advent of high-κ dielectric materials in the CMOS process, as announced by IBM and Intel for the 45 nanometer node and smaller sizes. The principle of complementary symmetry was first introduced by George Sziklai in 1953 who then discussed several complementary bipolar circuits. Paul Weimer , also at RCA , invented in 1962 thin-film transistor (TFT) complementary circuits,
17556-488: Was outlined, on the basis of thermal oxidation of a silicon substrate to yield a layer of silicon dioxide located between the drain contact and the source contact. CMOS was commercialised by RCA in the late 1960s. RCA adopted CMOS for the design of integrated circuits (ICs), developing CMOS circuits for an Air Force computer in 1965 and then a 288- bit CMOS SRAM memory chip in 1968. RCA also used CMOS for its 4000-series integrated circuits in 1968, starting with
17689-480: Was the largest single consumer of integrated circuits between 1961 and 1965. Transistor–transistor logic (TTL) was developed by James L. Buie in the early 1960s at TRW Inc. TTL became the dominant integrated circuit technology during the 1970s to early 1980s. Dozens of TTL integrated circuits were a standard method of construction for the processors of minicomputers and mainframe computers . Computers such as IBM 360 mainframes, PDP-11 minicomputers and
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