STRUCTURED GAAS DESIGN TOOL

INTEREST IN GALLIUM ARSENIDE (GAAS) INTEGRATED CIRCUITS (IC) IS GROWING RAPIDLY BECAUSE THEY ARE VERY FAST AND RESISTANT TO RADIATION.HOWEVER, SOME SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS ARE STILL OF CONCERN. FIRST, THE INCREASED SPEED OF THIS TECHNOLOGY HAS LED TO TIMING PROBLEMS IN CIRCUIT DESIGN. WITH THIS TECHNOLOGY THE GATE SWITCHING SPEEDS HAVE BEEN REDUCED TO WHERE THEY CAN BE EQUIVALENT TO THE WIRE TRANSMISSION TIMES, AND POWER SUPPLY PROBLEMS ARE DIFFICULT TO MANAGE. THIS PROPOSAL ADDRESSES AN APPROACH TO PROVIDE A VERY FAST DESIGN TOOL BASED UPON PATH PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC (PPL) A VERY FAST DESIGN TOOL FOR GAAS CIRCUITS WHICH WILL RESULT IN CIRCUITS WITH MINIMAL AND WELL CONTROLLED WIRE LENGTHS. THE DESIGN METHOD PROVIDES IMMEDIATE CIRCUIT FUNCTION VERIFICATION FOR TIMING PROBLEM CONTROL. IT ALSO RESULTS IN VERY COMPACT CIRCUIT LAYOUT WHICH IS EQUIVALENT TO FULL CUSTOM DESIGNS WITH THE REQUIRED DESIGN TIME BEING DECREASED BY AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE. THE MORE COMPACT LAYOUT WILL RESULT IN BETTER CIRCUIT PERFORMANCE AND IMPROVE YIELDS. THE PPL WIRE GRID ALSO PROVIDES A SIMPLE SOLUTION TO GAAS POWER SUPPLY PROBLEMS.