Motivated by consumer demand for smaller, more portable electronic
devices that offer more features and operate for longer on their
existing battery packs, cutting edge electronic circuits need to be ever
more power efficient. For the circuit designer, this requires an
understanding of the latest low voltage and low power (LV/LP)
techniques, one of the most promising of which makes use of the floating
gate MOS (FGMOS) transistor.
Whilst a conventional MOS transistor has only one input, the FGMOS
transistors often have several. This fact, along with some other
remarkable properties of this very interesting device, offers the
designer many extra degrees of freedom that can significantly improve
power efficiency. By using FGMOS transistors in the right way -
establishing appropriate relationships between their inputs - it is
possible to achieve design trade-offs that are not possible with
conventional MOS devices. This is especially true when power consumption
and supply voltage are the main design constraints.
This book demonstrates how FGMOS transistors can be used in a low
voltage and low power design context. The techniques shown provide
innovative solutions, often in situations where the limits of the
technology in question have been pushed far below the values recommended
by the manufacturer.