A SEMINAR ON

WEAK INVERSION
VLSI & Embedded Systems
Presented By- Vishal B. Chavan (515003)
Under Guidance of - Dr. M .B. Mali (HOD)
SCOE, Pune-
41
M.E.(I) 2013-2014
Index
Introduction
Defining weak inversion region & Description
Features
Applications
Conclusions
References
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Introduction
Present metaloxidesemiconductor (MOS) analog
circuits may use devices with channel widths that are
factors of hundreds or even thousands greater than
the channel length.
These high ratios of W/L can result from either wide
channel devices, designed to achieve high
transconductance, or from short-channel-length
devices used in high-frequency circuits.
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Introduction
Expression of drain current is given by

2
[1+ (

)]
Where,
V
Gs
is the applied gate-to-source voltage
I
D
is the drain current

is the resulting drain-to-source voltage

W is the channel width & L is the channel length

is the threshold voltage

is the drain-source pinchoff voltage

and is the channel length modulation factor.
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Introduction
In modern analog circuits, a problem with accuracy may
result from operation in the weak- or moderate-inversion
region.
In digital circuits, this problem is rarely encountered but
is often significant in analog circuits.
With devices that may have widths that are 100 to 1000
times the length, the W/L ratio becomes very high.
Since drain current is proportional to this ratio, the drain
current required for a practical analog design may be
achieved by a value of

that is only slightly higher or

slightly lower than the threshold voltage.
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Introduction
This low value of effective gate-to-source voltage,
expressed by

often establishes the

operation of the device in the weak- or moderate-
inversion region.
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Fig.1 Drain current
versus gate-to-source
voltage for an nMOS
transistor.
weak inversion region
In the actual MOSFET, drain current is not zero for all values of

below

.
Even negative values of

, occuring as

approaches

, may
lead to drain current that is no longer negligible for wide channel
devices. This current is referred to as subthreshold current.
The subthreshold region exists for values of

less than

when
positive drain current flows. Drain current continues to increase as

increases up to positive values of a few millivolts.

Current through the channel is carried primarily by diffusion for
slightly negative values of

up to positive values of about 20

mV.
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weak inversion region
This region that includes subthreshold conduction is
referred to as the weak inversion region.
The approximate relation between drain current and
gate-to-source voltage in the weak inversion region is
given by

/

Where and
0
can be extracted from experimental
data
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weak inversion region
As

continues to increase and more free carriers are

induced in the channel, drift current becomes comparable to
diffusion current, and both components contribute to drain
current.
At some point,

reaches a value that leads to a drift

current component of drain current exceeding the diffusion
component sufficiently so as to render diffusion current
negligible.
This region is called the moderate inversion region and exists
for values of

ranging from 20 mV up to about 80 mV.

As

is further increased, the strong-inversion region is

entered and strong inversion is reached as

increases to
the point that the drift current dominates the drain current.
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Features
Although operation below the strong-inversion region
leads to a lower bandwidth, there are several advantages
for circuits wherein frequency is not a major
consideration.
Surprisingly, operation below the strong-inversion region
can result in advantages such as higher gain, less power
dissipation, and less harmonic distortion.
Of course, the device does not move abruptly from the
strong-inversion region to the weak-inversion region as
drain current decreases. The moderate-inversion region
represents a transition from the weak- to the strong-
inversion region.
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Applications
For the high ratios of W/L resulting from large values of W
and/or small values of L in modern MOS analog amplifiers,
operation often takes place in the weak- or moderate-inversion
region.
MOSFET rectifiers with transistors operating in the weak
inversion region.
Weak Inversion Charge Injection in Analog MOS Switches
In these lower frequency amplifier stages, operation below the
strong-inversion region leads to three advantages.
Midband voltage gain is maximum near the lower edge of the strong
inversion region.
Power dissipation is lower.
Distortion of the output signal is reduced.
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Conclusions
To summarize, in weak inversion, the number of free
carriers in the channel is small enough to result in
negligible drift current, but diffusion current exists as
the MOSFET operates more like a bipolar junction
transistor (BJT).
Larger W/L ratios result in even higher currents for a
weak/moderate-inversion operation.
Equations based on a square-law variation of

with

that apply to the strong-inversion region are

invalid in the weak-inversion region.
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References
David J. Comer and Donald T. Comer, Operation of
Analog MOS Circuits in the Weak or Moderate
Inversion Region, IEEE Transactions On Education,
VOL. 47, NO. 4, November 2004.
Thomas Lee, The Design of CMOS Radio
Frequency Integrated Circuits, Second edition,
Cambridge.
P. E. Allen and D. R. Holberg, CMOS Analog Circuit
Design, 2
nd
ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2002,
ch. 3.
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