GaAs ICs for 10 Gb/s ATM switching

This paper reports on work done by project GARDEN under EU ESPRIT Research Programme in the past three years for developing ATM line units and ATM switch fabric operating at 2.5 Gb/s, and ongoing work for system upgrading to 10 Gb/s operation. A circuit of each type of unit is presented. This project has required the detailed specification of the system architecture, partitioning, interconnection, and technology mapping of the ATM functions into different chips, the development of full custom layout methodology and tools for MESFET HGaAs III, IV and HEMT technologies, and the actual design, fabrication and test of a set of IC's performing physical layer, ATM layer, buffering and switching functions.