To CMOS or Not

I know the main advantages of using CMOS ICs are to reduce power supply
requirements and to provide a higher noise immunity.
What I don't know is when CMOS ICs are not called for. What are the
advantages of non-CMOS chips? Thank you.

west

 

Bipolar: Low noise amplification, high bandwidth, low offsets,
precision...

But the best of both worlds is BiCMOS.

...Jim Thompson

 

Bipolar ECL, or better yet SiGe, when you want to go faster. See the
OnSemi Eclips Lite and GigaComm parts, or the Analog Devices
comparators. 40 ps edges! TI has a 5 GHz opamp, maybe SiGe.

InGaAs when you want to go really fast. Hittite and W-J and such.

Bipolar for high voltage swings, too, like voltage regulators.

John

 

Er, second breakdown? MOSFETs..!?

Tim

 

There aren't a lot of high-voltage cmos processes. Supertex has some
display drivers. AT&T used to have a 350 volt linear cmos process
(Apex used it) but I think it's gone.

There are those IR high-side mosfet drivers; I'm not sure how they
work inside.

John

 

John Larkin posted to
sci.electronics.design:

There are also some special functions like log amps, and multipliers
that may not have a reasonable CMOS substitute.