Ultra-high speed CMOS circuits in thin SIMOX films

CMOS dual-modulus prescaler circuits were built in very thin SIMOX films. They operate at 6.2 GHz, the highest speed ever reported for a digital CMOS circuit and 50% faster than the control circuits built in bulk Si. The high speed is obtained by taking advantage of the intrinsic properties of the SOI (silicon-on-insulator) structure combined with the symmetric CMOS technology that simultaneously optimizes the characteristics of both the p- and n-channel transistors.<<ETX>>