A novel BiCMOS circuit using a base boost technique for low voltage application

The high-speed performance of BiCMOS logic circuits is mostly lost under low-power supply voltage conditions. This is because the output swing is decreased due to the built-in voltage of the emitter-base junction (VBE). To overcome this problem, full-swing operation must be achieved. Transiently Saturated Full-Swing (TS-FS) BiCMOS logic circuit has achieved full-swing operation. This circuit, however, requires a high-performance pnp transistor, therefore, it introduces a drawback of high manufacturing cost. This paper proposes a novel BiCMOS logic circuit for low voltage application. It can operate at supply voltages as low as 1-1.5 V without a pnp transistor.