Difference between TTL CMOS ECL | TTL vs CMOS vs ECL

These are logic familities used in IC (Integrated Circuit) designs. TTL (Transistor Transistor Logic) IC technology uses bipolar transistor as principal circuit element. CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) IC technology uses FET as principal circuit element. ECL (Emitter Coupled Logic) IC technology uses bipolar transistors configured as differential amplifier. Let us compare TTL vs CMOS vs ECL logic families in order to derive difference between TTL and CMOS and ECL based on various parameters such as fan-out, power consumption, noise immunity etc.

TTL | Transistor Transistor Logic

This logic family basic TTL gate has improvement over standard DTL gate. TTL gate has three different types of output configurations:
• Open collector output
• Totem-pole output
• Three state (or tristate) output

Totem pole provides less power dissipation, higher speed of operation and high fanout.

Standard TTL series of logic family starts with suffix 74.
For example: 7404, 74S86 and 74ALS161

The other two families are for military and industrial applications.
54 - military
84 - Industrial (Discontinued)

ECL | Emitter Coupled Logic

ECL is based on use of current steering switch realised using differential transistor pair. ECL eliminates saturation and improves speed but uses more power than other logic families such as TTL and CMOS.

ECL is fastest logic family among all and this is due to avoidance of saturation region for application.

Following are characteristics of ECL logic family.
• propagation rate is about 1 to 2ns
• Noise immunity and power dissipation is worst of all the logic families.
• High Level is -0.8V and Low Level is -1.8V
• It has differential input amplifier, Internal temperature and voltage compensated bias network, emitter follower outputs •

ECL gates provide both true as well as complemented outputs.

CMOS | Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor

MOS logic families has more delay as compared to transistor logic families.

Following are the typical features of CMOS logic family:
• lowest power dissipation
• Excellent noise immunity
• High packing density
• Wide range of supply voltage
• High speed
• Highest fan out among all logic families

Difference between TTL and CMOS and ECL

Following table mentions difference between TTL and CMOS and ECL logic families.

Specification	TTL	ECL	CMOS
Basic gate	NAND	OR/NOR	NAND/NOR
Fanout	10	25	>50
Power per gate(mWatt)	1-22	4-55	1 @ 1MHz
Noise Immunity	Very Good	Good	Excellent
t_PD (ns)	1.5-33	1-4	1-200
Advantages and disadvantages of	TTL>>	ECL>>	CMOS>>