Three-to-one analog signal modulation with a single back-bias-controlled reconfigurable transistor

Abstract

Reconfigurable field effect transistors are an emerging class of electronic devices, which exploit a structure with multiple independent gates to selectively adjust the charge carrier transport. Here, we propose a new device variant, where not only p-type and n-type operation modes, but also an ambipolar mode can be selected solely by adjusting a single program voltage. It is demonstrated how the unique device reconfigurability of the new variant can be exploited for analog circuit design. The non-linearity of the ambipolar mode can be used for frequency doubling without the generation of additional harmonics. Further, phase shifter and follower circuits are enabled by the n- and p-type modes, respectively. All three functions can be combined to create a 3-to-1 reconfigurable analog signal modulation circuit on a single device enabling wireless communication schemes. Both, the concept as well as the application have been experimentally demonstrated on industrial-scale fully-depleted SOI platform. The special transport physics in those structures has been analyzed by TCAD simulations as well as temperature dependent measurements.