Design of a Robust Analog-to-Digital Converter Based on Complementary SET/CMOS Hybrid Amplifier

As a solution to the high speed, ultralow power, and extremely compact ADC circuit block, a complementary single-electron transistor (SET)/CMOS hybrid amplifier-based analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is proposed. It is implemented with a physics-based SPICE model including nonideal effects in real Si-based SET_s such as the tunnel barrier lowering effect, parasitic MOSFET_s operation, and the phase shift of Coulomb oscillation by the bias of a gate other than a main control gate. Its core scheme is the combination of both the amplification of SET current by MOSFET_s and the suppression of a Coulomb blockade oscillation valley current by the differential amplification. In addition, the transient operation of SET/CMOS hybrid circuit-based ADC_s fully accounting for nonideal effects of real SET_s is successfully demonstrated for the first time. Compared with the previous SET-based ADC_s, our ADC makes features of the immunity to nonideal effects, large voltage swing of the output signal, and high load drivability.