Performance evaluation of MCML-based XOR/XNOR circuit at 16-nm Technology node

MOS current mode logic (MCML) is an emerging logic family which is gaining attention due to its high speed of operation, robust performance and presence of mere switching noise as compared to the CMOS logic family. In this paper we have explored various XOR circuits in terms of propagation delay (t
p
), average power (PWR) and power delay product (PDP) at 16-nm Technology node. Variability analysis establishes High Speed 8T (HS-8T) XOR circuit as fastest and robust CMOS based XOR circuit among the other CMOS counterparts. Further, realization of XOR circuit is done using MCML topology. This paper also highlights various design issues in CMOS implementation and provides an analytical formulation of design using MCML to overcome different tradeoffs. MCML based XOR circuit proved to be even faster than High Speed 8T (HS-8T) XOR circuit. In particular, MCML based XOR circuit shows 107.384 × improvement in t
p
and 3.654 × improvement in PDP at nominal voltage of V
DD
= 0.7 V. Variability analysis establishes MCML based XOR circuit as the most resilient and immune to various electrical parameters.