Low Power and Low Voltage Circuit Design with the FGMOS Transistor

Motivated by consumer demand for smaller, more portable electronic devices that offer more features and operate for longer on their existing battery packs, cutting edge electronic circuits need to be ever more power efficient. For the circuit designer, this requires an understanding of the latest low voltage and low power (LV/LP) techniques, one of the most promising of which makes use of the floating gate MOS (FGMOS) transistor.

Whilst a conventional MOS transistor has only one input, the FGMOS transistors often have several. This fact, along with some other remarkable properties of this very interesting device, offers the designer many extra degrees of freedom that can significantly improve power efficiency. By using FGMOS transistors in the right way – establishing appropriate relationships between their inputs - it is possible to achieve design trade-offs that are not possible with conventional MOS devices. This is especially true when power consumption and supply voltage are the main design constraints.

This book demonstrates how FGMOS transistors can be used in a low voltage and low power design context. The techniques shown provide innovative solutions, often in situations where the limits of the technology in question have been pushed far below the values recommended by the manufacturer.