A 600 °C TTL-Based 11-Stage Ring Oscillator in Bipolar Silicon Carbide Technology

Ring oscillators (ROs) are used to study the high-temperature characteristics of an in-house silicon carbide (SiC) technology. Design and successful operation of the in-house-fabricated 4H-SiC n-p-n bipolar transistors and TTL inverter-based 11-stage RO are reported from 25 degrees C to 600 degrees C. Non-monotonous temperature dependence was observed for the oscillator frequency; in the range of 25 degrees C to 300 degrees C, it increased with the temperature (1.33 MHz at 300 degrees C and V-CC = 15 V), while it decreased in the range of 300 degrees C-600 degrees C. The oscillator output frequency and delay were also characterized over a wide range of supply voltage (10 to 20 V). The noise margins of the TTL inverter were also measured; noise margin low (NML) decreases with the temperature, whereas noise margin high (NMH) increases with the temperature. The measured power-delay product (P-D . T-P) of the TTL inverter and 11-stage RO was approximate to 4.5 and approximate to 285 nJ, respectively, at V-CC= 15 V. Reliability testing indicated that the RO frequency of oscillation decreased 16% after HT characterization.