Comparing MOS and bipolar integrated circuits

Abstract

In terms of speed and speed/power performance, bipolar integrated circuits are superior to metal-oxide-semiconductor integrated circuits. This superiority is based on the high transconductance inherent in bipolar transistors and is technology-independent. For the MOS case, transconductance is highly technology-dependent, and hence the performance difference will probably diminish in the future. Comparisons of the two technologies in their mid-1966 forms are made; the bipolar performance advantage in most cases is between 10 and 100. MOS integrated circuits have an area-per-function advantage ratio of about 5 for equivalent-function circuits, but a ratio of between 5 and 10 when circuits exploiting the unique MOS properties are considered. In addition, MOS processing is simpler than bipolar processing by approximately 40 percent.