Fast SiGe HBT BiCMOS FPGAs with new architecture and power saving techniques

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have always been used for applications like signal processing, rapid prototyping etc. With the advent of SiGe HBT devices, FPGAs have found new applications in high-speed digital-system design. Since SiGe HBTs can be used along with CMOS, it has made SiGe devices very popular. This paper elaborates new ideas in designing high-speed SiGe BiCMOS FPGAs. The architecture is based on Xilinx 6200. The paper explains new methods to cut down the number of trees in the circuit. Selective tree shutdown has been used to reduce power consumption. A new decoding logic has been developed where the address and data lines are shared. These ideas have improved the performance of SiGe FPGAs. The operating frequencies of the new Configuration Logic Block (CLB) is in the range of 1-20 GHz.