Topic
Subthreshold conduction
About: Subthreshold conduction is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6343 publications have been published within this topic receiving 131957 citations. The topic is also known as: Subthreshold leakage.
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TL;DR: A design technique for (near) subthreshold operation that achieves ultra low energy dissipation at throughputs of up to 100 MB/s suitable for digital consumer electronic applications and is largely applicable to designing other sound/graphic and streaming processors.
Abstract: We present a design technique for (near) subthreshold operation that achieves ultra low energy dissipation at throughputs of up to 100 MB/s suitable for digital consumer electronic applications. Our approach employs i) architecture-level parallelism to compensate throughput degradation, ii) a configurable V T balancer to mitigate the V T mismatch of nMOS and pMOS transistors operating in sub/near threshold, and iii) a fingered-structured parallel transistor that exploits V T mismatch to improve current drivability. Additionally, we describe the selection procedure of the standard cells and how they were modified for higher reliability in the subthreshold regime. All these concepts are demonstrated using SubJPEG, a 1.4 ×1.4 mm2 65 nm CMOS standard-V T multi-standard JPEG co-processor. Measurement results of the discrete cosine transform (DCT) and quantization processing engines, operating in the subthreshold regime, show an energy dissipation of only 0.75 pJ per cycle with a supply voltage of 0.4 V at 2.5 MHz. This leads to 8.3× energy reduction when compared to using a 1.2 V nominal supply. In the near-threshold regime the energy dissipation is 1.0 pJ per cycle with a 0.45 V supply voltage at 4.5 MHz. The system throughput can meet 15 fps 640 × 480 pixel VGA standard. Our methodology is largely applicable to designing other sound/graphic and streaming processors.
82 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, analytical models of sub-threshold current and slope for asymmetric four-terminal double-gate (DG) MOSFETs are presented, and the results of the models show excellent match with simulations using MEDICI.
Abstract: In this paper, analytical models of subthreshold current and slope for asymmetric four-terminal double-gate (DG) MOSFETs are presented. The models are used to study the subthreshold characteristics with asymmetry in gate oxide thickness, gate material work function, and gate voltage. A model for the subthreshold behavior of three-terminal DG MOSFETs is also presented. The results of the models show excellent match with simulations using MEDICI. The analytical models provide physical insight which is helpful for device design.
82 citations
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22 Jan 2010TL;DR: In this paper, a work function engineered mid-gap metal gate was used to reduce the switching energy of transistors for sub-threshold operation at 0.3 V and achieved a 97% reduction in switching energy compared to conventional transistors.
Abstract: Ultralow-power electronics will expand the technological capability of handheld and wireless devices by dramatically improving battery life and portability. In addition to innovative low-power design techniques, a complementary process technology is required to enable the highest performance devices possible while maintaining extremely low power consumption. Transistors optimized for subthreshold operation at 0.3 V may achieve a 97% reduction in switching energy compared to conventional transistors. The process technology described in this article takes advantage of the capacitance and performance benefits of thin-body silicon-on-insulator devices, combined with a workfunction engineered mid-gap metal gate.
82 citations
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14 Jun 2007
TL;DR: A robust, energy efficient subthreshold (sub-Vth) processor has been designed and tested in a 0.13 mum technology and Variability and performance optimization techniques are investigated for sub-V circuits.
Abstract: A robust, energy efficient subthreshold (sub-Vth) processor has been designed and tested in a 0.13 mum technology. The processor consumes 11 nW at Vdd = 160 mV and 3.5 pJ/inst at Vdd = 350 mV. Variability and performance optimization techniques are investigated for sub-Vth circuits.
82 citations
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18 Jun 2012
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed a method to detect biomolecules using Field Effect Transistors (FETs) in order to overcome the fundamental limitation of sub-threshold swing (SS) due to Boltzmann tyranny.
Abstract: Electrical detection of biomolecules using Field-Effect-Transistors (FETs) [1–5] is very attractive, since it is label-free, inexpensive, allows scalability and on-chip integration of both sensor and measurement systems. Nanostructured FETs, especially nanowires have gained special importance due to their high electrostatic control and large surface-to-volume ratio. In order to configure the FET as a biosensor (Fig. 1(a)), the dielectric/oxide layer on the semiconductor is functionalized with specific receptors. These receptors capture the desired target biomolecules (a process called conjugation), which due to their charge produce gating effect on the semiconductor, thus changing its electrical properties such as current, conductance etc. Thus it is intuitive, that greater the response of the FET to the gating effect, higher will be its sensitivity where sensitivity can be defined as the ratio of change in current due to biomolecule conjugation to the initial current (before conjugation). While the highest response to gating effect can be obtained in the subthreshold region, the conventional FETs (CFET) suffer severely due to the theoretical limitation on the minimum achievable Subthreshold Swing (SS) of [K B T/q ln(10)] due to the Boltzmann tyranny (Fig. 1(b)) effect where K B is the Boltzmann constant and T is the temperature. This also poses fundamental limitations on the sensitivity and response time of CFET based biosensors [6]. In recent times, Tunnel- FETs have attracted a lot of attention for low power digital applications [7]–[17], due to their ability to overcome the fundamental limitation in SS (60 mV/decade) of CFETs. Recently, it has been shown that the superior subthreshold behavior of TFETs can be leveraged to achieve highly efficient biosensors [6]. This is possible, thanks to the fundamentally different current injection mechanism in TFETs in the form of band-to-band tunneling [17]. The working principle of TFET biosensors is illustrated in Fig. 1c.
82 citations