Ratioed Circuits

Ratioed circuits use weak pull-up and stronger pull-down networks.

The input capacitance is reduced and hence logical effort.
Correct operation depends on correct pull-up and pull-down ratio.
Ratioed circuits dissipate static power and must be used sparingly.
The pull-up network for ratioed CMOS (pseudo-nMOS) uses a single pMOS
whose gate terminal is grounded (device is always on).
To compute the logical effort of the pseudo-nMOS gates we use the full
complementary CMOS inverter as reference.
Assume that the full complementary CMOS inverter delivers current I in both
rising and falling transition and that a properly sized pMOS device in a
pseudo-NMOS circuit has its width that of the nMOS pull-down network.
The logical effort is given by the ratio of the pseudo-nMOS inverter input
capacitance to that of the unit CMOS inverter input capacitance.

Ratioed Circuits

The objective is to have the nMOS pull-down network sized

appropriately to effectively fight the pMOS device for correct output.
The output current is therefore the difference between the pull-down
current and the pull-up current.
The parasitic delay p is determined by comparing the parasitic
output capacitance of the pseudo-nMOS inverter to that of the unit
sized inverter.
A Pseudo-nMOS NAND can be shown to be generally slower than
static CMOS, but pseudo-nMOS style shows improved delay for
gates such as the NOR gate. Why?
Ganged CMOS is widely known as Majority gate.
A single configuration can perform different logic functions
depending on input values.

Cascode Voltage Switch

Cascode voltage switch logic (CVSL) eliminates the static power

consumption of the pseudo-nMOS design style.
It has a pair of nMOS pull-down networks to compute an output and
its complementary value from associated input signals and their
complementary values.
The pull-down networks are complementary with one side having
series transistors while the other has a parallel combination.
CVSL has the potential to improve switching speed since the gate
input capacitance is reduced.

Dynamic Circuits

The drawbacks of ratioed logic include:

Slow rising transitions

Contention on the falling transitions
Static power dissipation and
Non-zero output low voltage

Dynamic circuits require a precharge and evaluate phase and use a

clock to circumvent the problems of the pseudo-nMOS approach.
Dynamic circuits are fast because of lower input capacitance and no
contention during switching.
Dynamic circuits have zero static power dissipation??????
The clock and the associated logic consume considerable dynamic
power.
Dynamic circuits are sensitive to noise during evaluation.

Domino Logic

Floating nodes could result when the input transitions from a HIGH
to a LOW before the precharge signal is asserted. When this
condition occurs both the nMOS pull-down network and the pMOS
(precharge devices are OFF.
Domino logic allows for the placement of static and dynamic circuits
to eliminate floating nodes??????
Domino gates are non-inverting.
Dual-rail domino logic gates encode each signal with a pair of wires.
The output and input signal pairs are denoted with _h and _l to
indicate their status (high or low).
Inputs and their complementary values are accepted by dual rail
domino.
These gates have both a precharge and an evaluate clock.