FOSS as an efficient tool for extraction of MOSFET compact model parameters

A GNU Octave - based application for device-level compact model evaluation and parameter extraction has been developed. The applications main features are as follows: experimental I-V data importing, generating input data for different circuit simulation programs, running the simulation program to calculate I-V characteristics of the specified models, calculating model misfit and its sensitivity to selected parameter variation, and the comparison of experimental and simulated characteristics. Measured I-V data stored by different measurement systems are accepted. Circuit simulations may be done with Ngspice, Qucs and LTSpiceIV © . Selected aspects of the application are presented and discussed

FOSS EKV 2.6 parameter extractor

The design of advanced integrated circuits (IC) in particular for low power analog and radio-frequency (RF) application becomes more complex as the device level modeling confronting challenges in micro- and nano-meter CMOS processes. As present CMOS technologies continue geometry scaling the designers can benefit using dedicated SPICE MOSFET models and apply specific analog design methodologies. The EKV was developed especially to meet altogether the analog/RF design requirements. This paper describes a basic set of the DC parameter extraction steps for the EKV 2.6 model. The free open source software (FOSS) Profile2D tool was used to illustrate accurate EKV 2.6 DC extraction strategy

Alterungsanalyse komplexer analoger integrierter Schaltungen aus Systemsicht

The design of analog circuits ranges from the specifications on system level, the selection of a suitable circuit topology up to the choice of the concrete physical dimensions of components like transistors. The individual steps are performed within computer-aided design environments. These environments are based on a database made available by the semiconductor manufacturers containing process parameters and influences on the components. In particular, the influences to be considered in the design have increased in recent years due to the continuous reduction of the producible structural sizes. Thus, it must be possible to analyze the deviations due to process, temperature, time degradation and, for special applications, radiation influences during the design phase. Conventional approaches regard these additional effects as standing next to the actual design process. As a result, the latter is no longer consistent and it is much more complex to consider different circuits and effects on different abstraction levels within the design flow. The focus of this work lies on the development of a consistent consideration of process, voltage, temperature, aging and radiation influences (PVTAR) during the entire design process of analog circuits to the initial measurement of manufactured circuits. To achieve this goal, a transistor model was extended by the influences to be considered. Thereby, the analysis of the additional effects is seamlessly integrated into conventional design processes and methods. In addition, the possibility of a structured analog design is evaluated. This approach allows the estimation of PVTAR influences on dedicated analog function blocks and their propagation on circuit level. Thus, the enormous simulation effort associated with aging analyses can be reduced. The design and manufacture of circuits is always followed by the measurement of the core properties of these circuits. In the context of this work a method was developed which makes it possible to use all insights from the design of a circuit for the improvement of the measuring results. In addition, the internal parameter sets of individual components can be inferred from the terminal behavior of circuits and systems. Finally, the results of the measurement method can be used for the automated calculation of circuit reliability parameters