Noise margins of threshold logic gates containing resonant tunneling diodes

Threshold gates consisting of resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) in conjuncti on with HBTs or CHFETs or MOSFETs can form extremely compact, ultrafast, di gital logic alternatives, and may be used for digital signal processing app lications in the near future. The resonant tunneling phenomenon causes thes e circuits to exhibit super-high-speed switching capabilities, Additionally , by virtue of being threshold logic gates, they are guaranteed to be more compact than traditional digital logic circuits, while achieving the same f unctionality. However, reliable logic design with these gates will need a t horough understanding of their noise performance and power dissipation amon g other things. In this brief, we present an analytical study of the noise performance of these threshold gates supplemented by computer simulation re sults, with the objective of obtaining reliable circuit design guidelines.