Transmission line based short pulse generation circuits in a 0.13 μm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology

A few traditional pulse forming circuits are implemented and compared in a commercial 0.13 μm digital CMOS technology. Standard on-chip transmission lines are used as pulse forming lines (PFLs), while CMOS transistors are used as switches. The shortest output pulses of these circuits are analyzed and compared through Cadence Spectre simulations. All the CMOS circuits are fabricated in the commercial technology. Pulses of ∼170 ps durations and 120-400 mV amplitudes are obtained when the power supply is tuned from 1.2 to 2 V. The results show that these traditional PFL based circuits can be implemented in standard CMOS technology for high power short pulse generations. Furthermore, the PFL circuits significantly extend the short pulse generation capabilities of CMOS technologies.