VLSI System Design

Dr B Lakshmi
SENSE

MOS Transistors
Silicon forms the basic starting material for a
large class of ICs.
It consists of 3-D lattice of atoms.
It forms covalent bonds with four adjacent
atoms.

Valence and conduction bands

A and B metal
C semiconductor or insulator

 Ev - Maximum
energy of the
valence band
Ec - Minimum
energy of the
conduction band
Eg - Width of the
energy bandgap
EF Fermi level
Represents the maximum energy of an electron in the
material at zero degree Kelvin
At that temperature, all the allowed energy levels below
the Fermi level are occupied, and all the energy levels
above it are empty

Semiconductor and insulator

Distinction between insulator and semiconductor
Based on the value of the energy gap

Semiconductors
Room-temperature thermal energy or excitation from
visible-light photons can give electrons enough energy for
"jumping" from the valence into the conduction band
Energy gap of 1.12 eV (silicon), 0.67 eV (germanium), and
1.42 eV (gallium arsenide)

Insulators
Insulators have significantly wider energy bandgaps
Room temperature thermal energy is not large enough to
place electrons in the conduction band
9.0 eV (SiO2), 5.47 eV (diamond), and 5.0 eV (Si3N4)

Intrinsic semiconductor
A semiconductor is said to be "intrinsic" if the vast
majority of its free carriers (electrons and holes)
originate from the semiconductor atoms themselves

In that case if an electron receives enough thermal

energy to "jump" from the valence band to the
conduction band, it leaves a hole behind in the
valence band

Extrinsic semiconductor
The silicon used in the semiconductor industry has a
purity level of 99.9999999%
One can, however, intentionally introduce in silicon
trace amounts of elements which are close to silicon
in the periodic table, such as those located in
columns III (boron) or V (phosphorus, arsenic)
If, for instance, an atom of arsenic is substituted for a
silicon atom, it will form four bonds by sharing four
electrons with the neighboring silicon atoms

Donor impurity

A Arsenic atom introduces an extra electron in crystal

An electron is released by Arsenic atom and it moves
freely in the crystal

nMOS and pMOS Transistor

Transistor symbols and Switch-level

models

N-channel MOS transistor

MOSFET with gate voltage zero

The gate voltage is equal to zero while the P-type
substrate and the source are grounded
The drain is connected to a positive voltage
Since the source and the substrate are at the same
potential there is no current flow in the sourcesubstrate junction
The drain-substrate junction is reverse biased and
except for a small negligible reverse leakage current no
current flows in that junction either
Under these conditions there is no channel formation,
and therefore, no current flow from source to drain.

MOSFET current vs voltage characteristics

MOS (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor)

MOS structure and Principle of

operation

nMOS Transistor and Principle of

operation

I-V characteristics
Three regions of operation
Cut-off or subthreshold region
Linear region
Saturation region

Transistor dimensions

Drain current equation

NMOS and PMOS characteristics

C-V Characteristics- MOS capacitor

Capacitances are non linear and voltage dependent

MOS Gate Capacitance Model

Intrinsic gate
capacitance
Cgc=Cgs+Cgd+Cgb as
a function of a) Vgs
b) Vds

Overlap Capacitance

Capacitor of MOS Transistor

Non Ideal I-V Effects

Velocity Saturation & Mobility Degradation
Channel Length Modulation
Threshold Effects
o Body Effects
o Drain Induced Barrier Lowering
o Short Channel Effect

Leakage
o Subthreshold Leakage
o Gate Leakage
o Junction Leakage

Temperature Dependence
Geometry Dependence

Velocity Saturation & Mobility

Degradation

Drift velocity vs Electric Field for

Silicon

For high electric fields, velocity saturation

occurs due to loss of energy of the carriers
to the lattice

Ec- Critical electric field

eff Effective mobility

Channel Length Modulation

VA Early Voltage

Body Effect
Variation of threshold voltage with respect to
the body potential

Vto- threshold voltage at

the body potential
- body effect coefficient
NA- channel doping

Drain Induced Barrier Lowering &

Short channel Effect
Increase in drain potential alters threshold
voltage

DIBL coefficient

Decrease in channel length vary the threshold

voltage- Vt roll off

Leakage

Subthreshold leakage

Gate Leakage

A and B technology constants

Junction Leakage

VD- Diode voltage

ID- Diode current
IS- Current depending on
doping levels and the area
and perimeter of the
diffusion region

Temperature Dependence
Carrier Mobility decreases with temperature

T- absolute temperature
Tr- room temperature
k -Fitting parameter

Id-Vg characteristics for various

temperatures

Geometry Dependence

XL and XW- Geometry factors

CMOS Logic Gates

Series and Parallel Transistors

CMOS Inverter

CMOS NAND

CMOS NOR

Compound Gates

Pass Transistors

Transmission Gates

Tri States

Multiplexer

Inverting Multiplexer

CMOS positive level-sensitive D latch

CMOS edge-triggered D Flipflop

CMOS Flip Flop with two phase

non overlapping clocks