Hybrid Design Using Metal–Oxide– Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors and Negative-Capacitance Field-Effect Transistors for Analog Circuit Applications

Abstract

In this work, novel hybrid circuits based on metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) and negative-capacitance field-effect transistors (NC-FETs) were proposed for analog circuit applications, including hybrid operational transconductor amplifier (OTA) and hybrid single-ended to the differential converter. We focus on the design innovation to take advantage of the effect of negative differential resistance (NDR) in NC-FETs. It was found that a significant increase in the output resistance ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R} _{out}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) of an OTA can be achieved. Therefore, by setting the quiescent operating point of an OTA in the NDR region of NC-FETs, remarkable improvement in the open-loop gain ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${A} _{OL}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ), the power supply rejection ratio (PSRR), and the common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) can be achieved in the proposed hybrid OTA compared with the conventional deep submicron MOSFET-based design. In addition, the hybrid MOSFET–NCFET-based design shows great potential in achieving a highly symmetric differential signal. By employing the NDR effect into the design of a single-ended to differential converter, more symmetric output differential signals can be realized compared with the conventional design. Our findings open new doors for further exploration of hybrid MOSFETs and NC-FETs design in analog circuit applications.