FinFET-based non-linear analog signal processing modules

Abstract

FinFETs exhibit far superior transistor characteristics (better gate control and a lower sub-threshold slope) as compared to the standard MOSFETs, this paper first employs the FinFETs in the design of an operational transconductance amplifier (OTA). The FinFET-based OTA offers a linearity range and - 3 dB bandwidth of 300 mV and 631.81 GHz, respectively. Further, the non-linear applications of the proposed OTA, viz. voltage divider, memristor emulator, and a memristive neuron, are presented. The proposed analog voltage divider circuit contains one OTA and two external N-FinFETs. The maximum bandwidth obtained for the voltage divider is 217.54 GHz. The memristor emulator contains one OTA, two external N-FinFETs, and one grounded capacitor. The proposed emulator circuit follows the signature characteristics of the actual memristor device. The frequency response characteristics of the proposed emulator circuit depict a bandwidth of 22.7 GHz. The proposed emulator shows non-volatile as well as electronically tunable features. Next, Monte-Carlo simulation analysis has been performed on the proposed circuits in order to observe the effects of statistical variation in different operating conditions. Furthermore, we propose a FinFET-based passive memristive neuron model using a memristor emulator circuit. The proposed neuron circuit follows a tangent hyperbolic activation function. All the proposed circuits are suitable for monolithic implementation. The proposed circuits are verified using 20 nm FinFET technology. The simulation results obtained using HSPICE agree well with the theoretical analysis.