Subthreshold MOSFET Transistor Amplifier Operation

Sherif M. Sharroush1, Yasser S. Abdalla2, Ahmed A. Dessouki3, and El-Sayed A. El-Badawy4

1
2

Dept of Elect Eng, Fac. of Eng., Port Said, Suez Canal Univ., Egypt. EM: Sherif_sharroush2003@yahoo.com

Dept of Electricity, Fac. of Industrial Edu., Suez, Suez Canal Univ., Egypt. EM: yasser@alumni.uwaterloo.ca
3

Dept of Elect Eng, Fac. of Eng., Port Said, Suez Canal Univ., Egypt. EM: dessouki2000@yahoo.com

Alex Higher Inst. Of Eng. and Tech & Fac. of Eng., Alex. Univ., Alexandria, Egypt. EM: sbadawy@ieee.org

Abstract Due to their ultra low-power consumption and

the high demand of portable applications, subthreshold MOSFET transistor operation (where the power-supply voltage is
lower than the threshold voltage, VDD<Vth) took considerable
interest in the last decade. However, most of the subthreshold
transistor applications are in the logic circuits domain. In this
paper, we will investigate the application of the MOSFET transistor in the subthreshold region as an amplifier, develop the ac
small-small equivalent circuit, derive expressions for the voltage gain in a common-source configuration, and compare this
amplifier with that using the MOSFET transistor operating in
the superthreshold region (where VDD>Vth).

Key Words: MOSFET transistor, ultra low power, subthreshold region, amplifier.
I.
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, the demand for the battery-operated
portable applications such as notebook and laptop computers, personal digital assistants, cellular phones, and other
portable communication devices has been increased. So, the
need increases also to reduce the power consumption. There
are several methods to reduce the power consumption such
as constant voltage scaling [1, 2], constant electric-field
scaling [3], switching activity reduction [4, 5], architectural
techniques such as pipelining and parallelism [6], and computer-aided design (CAD) issues of device sizing, interconnect [7, 8], and logic optimization [9, 10].
However, there are some applications such as portable
computing gadgets, medical electronic equipments, and
hand watches where ultra low-power consumption with low
or medium frequencies (tens or hundreds of megahertz) is
the primary requirement. As a solution to this problem,
energy recovery or quasi-adiabatic techniques [6] can be
used. However, this involves the use of high-quality inductors which is difficult to integrate [11]. So, in these applications, the use of the MOSFET transistor in the subthreshold
region, where the power-supply voltage, VDD is lower than
the threshold voltage, Vth, seems to be suitable as it reduces
the power consumption considerably. The subthreshold leakage current of the MOSFET transistor in this case will be
used as the operating current to perform the computations in
logic circuits. However, the use of the MOSFET transistor
in the subthreshold region to perform high-speed operations

978-1-4244-5750-2/10/$26.00 2009 IEEE

is not possible since the operating current in the subthreshold region is much lower than that in the triode or saturation regions, thus requiring longer intervals of time to
charge or discharge the parasitic capacitances and thus performing the computations in digital circuits. We will,
throughout this paper, refer to the MOSFET transistor operating in the subthreshold region (with VDD<Vth) as the subthreshold transistor and refer to the MOSFET transistor operating in the triode or saturation regions (with VDD>Vth) as the
superthreshold transistor. Thus, the two transistors can be
made in the same fabrication process and with the same
dimensions, but the two terms subthreshold and superthreshold simply refer to their regions of operation.
As another benefit of operating the MOSFET transistor
in the subthreshold region, the transistor input capacitance
in the subthreshold region is much less than that in the superthreshold region [12]. On the other hand, the input capacitance in the superthreshold operation is dominated by the
gate-oxide capacitance. Due to the smaller input capacitance
and the lower-supply voltage in the subthreshold region, the
power consumption will be much less than that in the superthreshold region. The subthreshold region operation was
investigated and utilized especially in digital-circuit applications. The interested reader can refer to [12-15] for these
applications.
Impact of Scaling on the Subthreshold Operation
There is no doubt that the MOSFET transistor dimensions are scaled down in order to squeeze more devices in
the same area, thus performing more functions at the same
time interval and increasing the speed. At earlier versions of
the CMOS technologies, the power-supply voltage is maintained constant at 5 V [3], thus causing the electric field to
increase and decreasing the reliability of the devices due to
the increased probability of breakdown. So, the need arises
to reduce the power-supply voltage, VDD in order to increase
the device's reliability. Also, due to the increasing demand
for the portable devices which are power-sensitive, VDD
scales down in order to decrease the dynamic power consumption. This scaling scenario, where the power supply
and the dimensions are scaled down with the same ratio, is
known as the constant electric-field scaling.

However, scaling down VDD causes the device's speed to

decrease [16]. To solve the problem of performance degradation, the threshold voltage must be reduced also to maintain the performance at an acceptable level. The price paid,
however, is the increased subthreshold leakage current [17]
and the associated increase in static power consumption. So,
Vth decreases at a rate that is slower than that of VDD reduction. As a result, the VDD/Vth ratio decreases with CMOS
technology scaling [16]. This illustrates the fact that Vth occupies a larger ratio of the VDD space as the CMOS technology scales down, thus further encouraging the operation of
the MOSFET transistor in the subthreshold region. This can
be illustrated with the aid of Fig. 1 which illustrates the ratio
of Vth relative to VDD for the 0.35 and 0.13 m CMOS technologies. For the first one, Vth is approximately one fifth
VDD while for the second one, Vth is one third VDD. So, it can
be concluded from Fig. 1 that the subthreshold region
(shown shaded) has a greater relative extension in the space
extending from 0 V to VDD as the technology scales.

In this Section, we will discuss the physical operation

of the MOSFET transistor in the subthreshold region. Specifically, the ideal current-voltage relationship employed in
simple design predicts zero current when the gate-to-source
voltage, VGS is less than or equal to the threshold voltage.
However, ID is not practically zero when VGS d Vth . Fig. 2
shows a comparison between the ideal characteristics and
the experimental results. The drain current, in this region, is
known as the subthreshold current.

Fig. 2 Comparison of the ideal and experimental plots of

Fig. 1 The ratio of the threshold voltage, Vth to VDD for the 0.35 m (on the
left) and for the 0.13 m (on the right) CMOS technologies.

We will, in this paper, investigate the utilization of the

subthreshold transistor as an amplifier. As with any other
semiconductor device, the physical operation is first studied,
thus disclosing the physical reason behind the current flow
in this device along with the charge carriers' movement.
Second, the current-voltage relationship will be derived and
the various regions of operation of the device will be studied
along with the applications of this device in these regions.
Finally, the small-signal analysis of the device will be studied and the ac small-signal equivalent circuit of this device
will be developed. The preceding philosophy will be
adopted in this paper with the subthreshold transistor.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows.
Section II gives an explanation of the physical operation of
the MOSFET transistor in the subthreshold region along
with the statement of the current-voltage relationship in this
region. Section III describes the small-signal analysis and
the linear application concept of the subthreshold transistor
along with the development of the ac small-signal equivalent circuit of the subthreshold transistor. Section IV discusses the utilization of the subthreshold transistor as an
amplifier in a common-source configuration with a diodeconnected subthreshold transistor as a load. The quantitative
analysis will be merged with Sections III and IV. Section V
concludes the paper. Finally, Section VI presents two points
for future work concerning the subthreshold transistor.
II.

PHYSICAL OPERATION OF THE SUBTHRESHOLD TRANSISTOR

ID

versus VGS.

Fig. 3 shows the energy-band diagram of a MOS structure with a p-type substrate biased so that Is  2I fp . At the
same time, the Fermi level is closer to the conduction band
than to the valence band at the surface, so the semiconductor
surface develops the characteristics of a lightly doped n-type
material. We would expect, then, to observe some conduction between the n+ source and drain contacts through this
weakly inverted channel. This conduction is due to the diffusion of minority carriers in the channel. The condition of
I fp  I s  2I fp is known as weak inversion. A detailed study
of the conduction in this region reveals that the drain current
depends exponentially on VGS.

Fig. 3 Energy-band diagram when I  I  2I for the case of weak

fp
s
fp
inversion.

The following Equation is the current-voltage relationship for the subthreshold transistor [17]
vGS Vth0 JvSB KvDS
v
 DS
nVT
VT
sub
0
(1)

with

Ie

1 e

I0

W 2 1.8
VT e
L

P 0 C ox

(2)

where W and L are the transistor channel width and length,

respectively, 0 is the electron mobility at low electric
fields, Cox is the gate-oxide capacitance per unit area, VT is
the thermal voltage and is given by
kT
(3)
VT
q
where k is Boltzmann's constant, T is the environmental
temperature, and q is the electronic charge, n is the subthreshold swing factor, J is the linearized body-effect coefficient, K is the drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) coefficient, and Vth0 is the threshold voltage at zero source-tosubstrate voltage. If the body-effect coefficient and the
drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) coefficient are neglected, then Eq. 1 can be written simply as

isub

I 0e

vGS Vth
nVT

v
 DS

1  e VT

isub

W
P 0Cox
L

2 1. 8
VT e e

v
 DS
VT

vGS Vth
nVT

to be much less than

(5)

III.

SMALL-SIGNAL ANALYSIS OF THE SUBTHRESHOLD TRANSISTOR

In this Section, we will develop the ac small-signal
equivalent circuit of the subthreshold transistor. Toward that
end, assume that the applied gate-to-source voltage is
vGS VGS  v gs
(6)
where we have adopted the convention that the voltages or
currents with small symbols and large subscripts refer to
total voltages or currents and those with capital symbols and
subscripts refer to pure dc values and those with small symbols and subscripts refer to pure ac values [18]. In this case,
the total value of the subthreshold leakage current will be
equal to
i subt

W
L

P 0 C ox

2 1 .8
V T e e

W 2 1 .8
V T e e
L

V GS  v gs  V th

V GS  V th

P 0 C ox

nV T

nV T

(7)

v gs

e nV T

where isubt is the total (dc+ac) subthreshold current. Expressing the exponential term evgs in a Taylor-series expansion,
we obtain
i subt

W 2 1 .8
V T e e
L

P 0 C ox

1  v gs  v gs
nV

nV T
T

V GS  V th
nV T

v gs

nV T

P 0C
I sub

? isubt

 ......

(8)

L
I
 sub
nV T
ox

2 1 .8
V T e e

V GS  V th
nV T

v gs

1 
nV T

v gs

I sub  g m vgs

(9)

where gm represents the transconductance of the subthreshold transistor and is given by

I sub
.
nVT

gm

(4)

If the drain-to-source voltage, vDS is larger than 3VT,

then we can consider the factor e
1, and thus Eq. 4 can be written as

For small ac values of the gate-to-source voltage; that is

when vgs<<nVT, we can neglect the second and higher-order
terms in the Taylor-series expansion and thus the total
subthreshold current, isubt can be expressed as the sum of a
dc current and an ac small-signal current of the first order as
follows
i subt
I sub  i sub

fact,

(10)

The term small-signal needs to be more clarified. In

the
higher-order
terms
such
as

v gs

nV
T

v
and gs ,etc can be neglected only if the

nV

ac small-signal voltage, vgs is less than one tenth the value of

nVT. Depending on the values of n and VT, the maximum
amplitude of the ac gate-to-source voltage for linear operation can be determined. This is less than its counterpart in
the superthreshold device where the maximum permissible
value for vgs is dictated by the following inequality [18]
(11)
v gs  2VGS  Vth 
Note first that the expression for the transconductance
of the subthreshold transistor is similar to that of the BJT
transistor. This comes to no surprise since the currentvoltage relationship of Eq. 5 adopted in deriving the expression for gm is similar to that of the BJT transistor which is
given by

iC

ISe

v BE
,
nVT

(12)

where iC is the collector current, IS is the reverse-saturation

current, vBE is the base-to-emitter voltage, n is a fix-up parameter which is different from n in the subthresholdcurrent equation, and VT is the thermal voltage. So, in spite
of the superthreshold MOSFET transistor is a square-law
device, the subthreshold transistor is an exponential one as
the BJT transistor. Second, note that the value of gm of the
subthreshold transistor is much less than that of the conventional MOSFET device. This also comes to no surprise because the subthreshold current is much less than the drain
current in the superthreshold region. So, we can expect that
the voltage gain of the subthreshold transistor amplifier is
less than that of the superthreshold transistor amplifier for
the same load.

Modeling the Effect of the Drain-to-Source Voltage

Now, to investigate the effect of the drain-to-source
voltage, vDS on the subthreshold current, isub, refer to the
following Equation
vGS Vth KvDS

isubt

nVT

I 0e

e nVT

(13)

where K is the drain-induced barrier lowering coefficient as

mentioned before. Defining the output resistance of the
subthreshold transistor as
wvDS
atvGS constan t 
r0
wisubt
(14)
1
atvGS constan t 
wisubt / wvDS

1
VGS Vth
nVT

I 0e

Kv DS

e nVT

nVT
KI sub

1
Kgm

nVT
This seems to be an interesting result; the output resistance, r0 of the subthreshold transistor is interrelated to the
transconductance, gm through the factor, K . This can be
expected since the subthreshold current depends exponentially on both vGS and vDS. Depending on the values of K ,
r0, the subthreshold transistor can be used as a poor or a
good current source whose value can be controlled by VGS.
This is in contrast to the current source implemented by the
superthreshold device where its stability is related to ro only
of the transistor.
Modeling the body effect
The effect of the source-to-substrate voltage, vSB on the
subthreshold current can be investigated by defining the
body transconductance factor, gmb as

wisubt
atvGS andvDS
wvBS

g mb

constan t  .

Now, since

i subt
I 0e
? g

mb

I 0e

I 0e

vGS Vth K v DS
nV T

VGS Vth K V DS
nV T
V GS  V th  K V DS
nV T

J v BS

J  v BS

e
T

nV

(a)

(b)

(c)
Fig. 4 (a) A simple small-signal equivalent circuit of the subthreshold transistor, (b) the small-signal equivalent circuit of the subthreshold transistor
taking into account the output resistance, (c) the small-signal equivalent
circuit of the subthreshold transistor taking into account the output resistance and the body effect.

Note that the most complicated small-signal equivalent

circuit does not contain the internal capacitors of the MOSFET transistor. This is mainly due to the fact that the subthreshold transistor application is in the tens or hundreds of
MHz range of frequencies. In this range of frequencies, we
can neglect the effect of the internal capacitors.

 J v S  v B 
nV T

nV T

J
nV

(15)

(c) illustrates the equivalent circuit taking into account both

the effects of vDS and the substrate by augmenting the resistor, ro and the voltage-controlled current source, gm vBS. The
equivalent circuit of the subthreshold transistor is obviously
the same as that of the superthreshold transistor except for
the expressions for gm, gmb, and ro

(16)

I sub
Jg m
nV T
The body-transconductance parameter is also interrelated to the transconductance, gm. Now, refer to Fig. 4 for
the small-signal equivalent circuit of the subthreshold transistor. Fig. 4 (a) illustrates the equivalent circuit without
taking into account the effects of vDS or the substrate, Fig. 4
(b) illustrates the equivalent circuit taking into account the
effect of vDS through augmenting the resistor, ro, and Fig. 4

Diode-Connected Subthreshold Transistor

Due to the need to use resistors as loads with MOSFET
transistors and due to the relatively large area consumed by
the resistors and the difficulty of fabrication in many CMOS
technologies, diode-connected MOSFET transistors can be
used as resistors. In the next Section, we will discuss the use
of the diode-connected subthreshold transistor as a resistor.
If the gate and drain of the subthreshold transistor are
connected together as shown in Fig. 5 (a), the corresponding
small-signal equivalent circuit will be as shown in Fig. 5
(b).

1
// r0
g m  g mb

Jg m , r0

, g mb

1
g m K  J  1

?R
(a)

IV.

THE SUBTHRESHOLD TRANSISTOR AS AN

AMLPIFIER
Common-Source Stage with a Diode-Connected Load
Refer to Fig. 7 for the common-source subthreshold
transistor with a diode-connected subthreshold load. The
voltage gain can thus be written as

Av
(b)
Fig. 5 (a) The diode-connected subthreshold transistor and (b) the corresponding small-signal equivalent circuit.

The ac small-signal resistance seen from the drain to

the source can be derived with the aid of Fig. 6.

Fig.6 The ac resistance seen at the drain terminal of the diode-connected

subthreshold transistor.

Since the voltage, vgs is applied on the dependentcurrent source, gm vgs, we can apply the source-absorption
theorem [18] and thus replacing this source with a resistance
equal to 1/gm. The voltage, vbs is zero, so the dependent
source, gmbvbs will be replaced with an open circuit. The
resistance seen at the drain end is thus

1
1
//
Kg m g m

1
.
 g m1 ro1 //
gm 2 K  J  1

1
K  1g m

(17)

The resistance given by Eq. 17 represents the equivalent resistance of the diode-connected subthreshold transistor. The resistance seen at the source end is [19]

(18)

It can be concluded that the voltage gain of the subthreshold transistor amplifier is less that that using the superthreshold transistor due to the fact that gm of the subthreshold transistor is less than that of the superthreshold one.

Fig. 7 A common-source subthreshold transistor loaded by a diodeconnected subthreshold device.

The intrinsic gain of the subthreshold transistor loaded

by an ideal current source which is the maximum voltage
gain that can be achieved by the subthreshold device is
equal to

 g m r0

1
r0 //
gm

1
Kg m

gm
Kg m

1

(19)

This is to be compared with VA/VT for the superthreshold transistor [18]. The common-gate, the sourcefollower, and the cascade stages can be studied in a similar
manner.
V.
CONCLUSIONS
Due to the increasing demand of portable applications,
the need arises to reduce the power consumption as possible

as we can. In applications where the low or medium performance can be tolerated, the subthreshold region can be utilized. In long idle-time applications, the subthreshold leakage current is considered the main cause of static power
consumption. However, in ultra low-power applications, the
subthreshold leakage current is the operating current. In this
paper, the use of the subthreshold transistor as an amplifier
was investigated and the ac small-signal equivalent circuit
of the subthreshold transistor was developed. Throughout
the paper, the differences between the subthreshold and superthreshold transistors were illustrated.
VI.
FUTURE WORK
In this Section, we will propose two points for the future work to be completed by the reader. First, the currentvoltage relationship of Eq. 5 of the subthreshold transistor
reveals the similarity between the subthreshold transistor
and the BJT transistor in that the current in both devices
depends exponentially on the voltage difference between
two terminals. This suggests that the subthreshold transistor
can be used to implement the functions performed by the
BJT transistor but in ultra low-power applications. Among
these functions is the logarithmic amplifier illustrated in Fig.
8 [20].

Fig. 8 A logarithmic amplifier using the BJT transistor [21].

The reader is encouraged to investigate the implementation of the logarithmic function using the subthreshold
transistor and compare the performance, power consumption, and area overhead with that using the BJT transistor.
Besides the ultra low-power consumption of the subthreshold transistor, the ease of fabrication of the MOSFET
transistor is also a motivation for utilizing the MOSFET
transistor in these types of applications. The exponential
dependence of the current through the subthreshold transistor on the gate-to-source voltage seems to open the door for
a new type of applications that can be performed using only
the BJT transistor. Among these applications is the logarithmic amplifier.
The second point is the effect of the gate-tunneling current, IG of the subthreshold transistor. Throughout this paper, we have neglected the gate-tunneling current, IG of the
subthreshold transistor. IG increases exponentially as the
gate-oxide thickness, tox decreases due to the increased
probability of tunneling. Keeping in mind that tox decreases
with CMOS technology scaling in order to alleviate short-

channel effects, the effect of IG will increase. IG must thus

be taken into account by augmenting the small-signal equivalent circuit of Fig. 4 with a suitable voltage-controlled dependent current source between the gate and source terminals. The reader is encouraged to complete this work.
VII.

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