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MOTOROLA ECL

This research on ECL was necessary for the repair of my HP 8016A Word Generator which had some faulty ECL IC's, for which data sheets and spares seemed to be unavailable on the web.  I was aware of ECL and some of its features but had not used it before.

July 2009

This family of high speed logic integrated circuits was developed by Motorola in the 1960's.  ECL stands for Emitter-Coupled Logic and the Motorola series was known as MECL.

There were 5 series of MECL IC's from Motorola: MECL I 1962-1977 30MHz switching and 8ns gate propagation delay; MECL II 1966-1979 70MHz switching and 4ns gate propagation delay (which increased to 180MHz and 2ns over the years); MECL III 1968-19?? 500MHz switching and 1ns gate propagation delay; MECL 10K (1971-) and MECL 10KH (1981-) were further improvements.

In 1999 Motorola divested its semiconductor business to ON Semiconductor.

TTL and CMOS IC's generally source current to the load in the high state (Logic '1') and sink current from the load in the low state (Logic '0'). They are powered by a single positive Vcc (+5V TTL) power supply.

In contrast ECL operates in the non-saturated transistor region so that current conditions are fairly constant whether high or low.  This also helps to prevent power switching noise being introduced into the circuit.  ECL also uses a -5.2V negative power supply Vee.  [Modern versions of ECL are available that use positive power supplies, PECL, LVPECL, etc, which are outside the scope of this research].

ECL IC's use a differential amplifier input and emitter follower outputs which are biased to remain within their operating curves rather than switching off or saturating. This dramatically improves their switching speeds, typically to <1ns.

Logic Levels: Typically only 0.7V difference between high and low states, which can cause noise problems.

Logic '0' Low (VOL) can vary between -1.4V and -1.9V

Logic '1' High (VOH) can vary between -0.7V and -1.2V

This is with all outputs loaded with 50Ω to -2.0V

Inputs are generally (check data sheet) internally pulled down to Vee, so unused inputs can be left floating and assume a logic '0' state.

Other Voltage Levels are:

Vcc1 0V Ground (often just output stage to provide separation from input)

Vcc2 0V Ground (often just input stage to provide separation from output)

Vee -5.2V Negative Power, also tied to unused inputs

Vtt -2.0V Termination Voltage

Vbb -1.29V Bias Voltage

ECL IC's Used In HP Test Equipment

Part Number

Memory

Equipment

Data Sheet

HP Part Number

MC1037P

16-Bit Coincident Memory w/o Pulldowns

8016A

Wanted

1820-1227

MC1039P

Quad Level Translator (MECL to Saturated Logic)

8016A

MOT

1820-0275

MC1660L

Dual 4 Input OR/NOR

3762A

MOT

1820-0790

MC1662L

Quad 2 Input NOR

8016A

MOT

1820-0796

MC1670L

Master-Slave Flip-Flop

3762A

MOT

1820-0794

MC10101L

Quad 2 Input OR/NOR

8016A

MOT

1820-0801

MC10102P

Quad 2 Input NOR

8016A

MOT

1820-0802

MC10105L

Triple 2-3-2 Input OR/NOR

8016A

MOT

1820-0803

MC10106L

Triple 4-3-3 Input NOR

8016A

MOT

1820-0804

MC10107L

Triple 2 Input XOR/XNOR

3762A

MOT

1820-0805

MC10109L

Dual 4-5 Input OR/NOR

8016A

MOT

1820-0806

MC10110L

Dual 3 Input 3 Output OR

8016A

MOT

1820-0807

MC10111L

Dual 3 Input 3 Output NOR

8016A

MOT

1820-0808

MC10119L

4 Wide 4-3-3-3 Input OR-AND

8016A

MOT

1820-0813

MC10121P

4 Wide OR-AND/OR-AND-INVERT

8016A

MOT

1820-0815

MC10131P

Dual D-Type Master-Slave Flip-Flop

8016A

MOT

1820-0817

MC10135L

Dual J-K Master-Slave Flip-Flop

3762A

MOT

1820-0820

MC10137P

Universal Decade Counter

3762A

MOT

1820-0822

MC10164L

8-Line Multiplexer

3762A

MOT

1820-0829

MC10176P

Hex D-Type Master-Slave Flip-Flop

3762A

MOT

1820-1399

MC10210P

Dual 3 Input 3 Output OR

3762A

MOT

1820-1830

MC10211P

Dual 3 Input 3 Output NOR

3762A

MOT

1820-1482

MC10216P

High Speed Triple Line Receiver

8016A

MOT

1820-1224

MC10231P

High Speed Dual D-Type Master-Slave Flip-Flop

8016A

MOT

1820-1225

NOTES:

P = Plastc DIL 16 Pin

C or L = Ceramic DIL 16 Pin

HP Part Numbers were often printed on the IC's instead of the industry standard (JEDEC) part numbers. I have a searchable PDF cross-reference list of 143 pages. This will help identify IC's from scrapped equipment.

I am trying to obtain Motorola ECL Databooks and some Datasheets for these IC's. Many are available from www.datasheetcatalog.com

An excellent reference is the "MECL System Design Handbook" from ON Semiconductor at www.onsemi.com/pub_link/Collateral/HB205-D.PDF

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