Mansoor Shaukat 1

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Mansoor Shaukat

IC Design Philosophy

• Introduction!
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IC Design Philosophy

• Introduction :
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– We have studied discrete–circuit amplifier
configurations.
– The next domain is integrated–circuit amplifiers.
• There is a difference in IC design philosophy.
– Circuits combine MOS and bipolar transistors in a
technology known as BiMOS or BiCMOS.
– Chip-area considerations dictate that while resistors are
to be avoided, constant current sources are readily
available.

• …contd!
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IC Design Philosophy

• Large capacitors are components external to the IC chip but should be used
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cautiously to keep number of chip terminals small to avoid high cost.
• CMOS process technologies are continuously improving so that devices
with less than 0.1 µm (100 nm) channel length were being produced as of
2003.
• Advantages?
– These require overdrive voltages of only 0.1 volts or even less.
– However, bipolar circuits can still provide much higher output currents.
– Due to reliability under severe environmental conditions, the bipolar circuits are
preferred for applications in the automotive industry.
• By 2014, CMOS process technologies capable of producing devices with a
14 - nm channel length were in use.
• CMOS is the most popular technology for the implementation of digital
systems due to :
• Small size
• Ease of fabrication and
• Low power dissipation

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IC Design Philosophy

• IC technology offers the circuit designers a very large number of inexpensive

small-area MOS transistors.
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• For minimization of chip area, large-valued resistors and capacitors are
virtually absent.
• Biasing in integrated circuits utilizes current sources.
– An accurate and stable reference current is generated and then replicated to provide
bias currents for various amplifier stages.
– The heart of the current-steering circuitry utilized to perform this function is the
current-mirror.
• The high-frequency response of IC amplifiers is limited by the transistor
internal capacitances, mainly Cgs and Cgd in the MOSFET and CΠ and Cμ in the
BJT.
• IC amplifiers employ constant-current sources in place of the resistances
RD(RC) that connects the drain (collector) to the power supply. Reason?
– These active loads enable the realization of reasonably large voltage gains while using
low voltages supplies (as low as 1 V)
• …contd

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Typical Values of BJT/MOSFET Parameters
• To pack more transistors on a chip, the trend is to reduce the
minimum allowable channel length.
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• Magnitude of threshold voltage Vt has been decreasing with
decreasing length. Additionally VDD has been reduced from 5 volts
to 1 volt for newer technologies to keep power dissipation as low as
possible.
• With submicron technologies, channel length modulation effect is
very pronounced. As a result V’A has been steadily decreasing
which causes Early voltage VA = V’AL to become very small so
short-channel MOSFETs exhibit low output resistance.
– Because r0 = VA/ID
• Two major MOSFET capacitances are Cgs and Cgd. We see that:
– Shorter devices exhibit much higher operating speeds and wider
amplifier bandwidths.

• …contd!

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Typical values……contd

• The largest voltage gain available from a CS or a CE

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amplifier is equal to the intrinsic gain of the transistor:
Ao = gmro
– for a BJT, it is 200 to 5000 V/V.
– for a MOSFET, it is 10 to 40 V/V.
• CE amplifier has low input resistance and
• CS amplifier has an infinite input resistance

• Including a small resistance in the source (emitter) of a

CS(CE) amplifier provides the designer with a tool to effect
some performance improvements e.g. wider bandwidth in
return for gain reduction (a trade-off characteristic of
negative feedback).
• Some ICs dissipate as much as100 watts.

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Typical Values of BJT/MOSFET Parameters

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• The major drawback of standard bipolar integrated circuit

fabrication process has been the lack of pnp transistors of
a quality equal to that of npn devices.
• β is lower for pnp transistors

• Comparison of important characteristics!

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Comparison of Important Characteristics

• MOSFET • BJT
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• Induce a channel vGS > vt where • Forward-bias EBJ vBE >vBEon
vt = 0.5 to 0.7 V where vBEon = 0.5 V
• vDS > (vGS – vt) • Reverse-bias CBJ
• i – v characteristics • i – v characteristics
• iG = 0 • iB = iC/β
• Input resistance (CS) is infinite • Input resistance (CE) rΠ = β/gm
• Transconductance • Transconductance gm=Ic/VT

gm 
id
v gs
 k n
W
L

VGS  Vt 

ID 
1
k n
W

VGS  Vt  1  VV
2 DS

 where 1/VA = λ process-technology parameter
2 L  A 
or 2 ID
gm 
V
GS  Vt 
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Mansoor Shaukat

Choose a job you love,

and you will not have to work a
day in your life.
(Confucius)