DYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF INVERTER CIRCUITS USING SINGLE-ELECTRON TRANSISTORS

We have investigated the basic characteristics of capacitively and res istively coupled single-electron tunneling (SET) inverters as a digita l logic circuit. Static and dynamic characteristics have been calculat ed based on the semiclassical model using the Monte Carlo method. Alth ough a voltage gain larger than unity is found even in a cascade conne ction of two stages of the SET inverters, they reveal some disadvantag es in digital logic application, such as small voltage gain, poor inpu t-output separation, small logic level difference, instability of oper ating point and oscillating output voltages. The switching delay time is estimated to be on the order of 100RC, where R and C is resistance and capacitance of a tunnel junction, respectively. The stability of l ogic voltage levels has also been verified in cross-coupled latch circ uits.