A Carrier-Transit-Delay-Based Nonquasi-Static MOSFET Model for Circuit Simulation and Its Application to Harmonic Distortion Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, a compact model of nonquasi-static (NQS) carrier-transport effects in MOSFETs is reported, which takes into account the carrier-response delay to form the channel. The NQS model, as implemented in the surface-potential-based MOSFET Hiroshima University STARC IGFET model, is verified to predict the correct transient terminal currents and to achieve a stable circuit simulation. Simulation results show that the NQS model can even reduce the circuit simulation time in some cases due to the elimination of unphysical overshoot peaks normally calculated by a QS-model. An average additional computational cost of only 3% is demonstrated for common test circuits. Furthermore, harmonic distortion characteristics are investigated using the developed NQS model. While the distortion characteristics at low drain bias and low switching frequency are determined mainly by carrier mobility, distortion characteristics at high frequency are found to be strongly influenced by channel charging/discharging