Ultra-compact low-power ICO/VCO circuits with double gate MOSFETs

As the CMOS device scaling reaches to sub 20 nm scale by 2016 [1], multi-gate MOSFET architectures are poised to replace the conventional bulk devices [2]. Although non-planar multi-gate architectures can come in various forms including double-gate (DG) MOSFETs, FinFET, MIGFET, Π-gate or Ω-gate versions, they operate on the same premise of increasing current drive via multiple channels and better electro-static gate control. As a result, these compact devices can not only maximize the I_ON/I_OFF ratio for logic switching, but also possess significant potential for analog/RF applications such as tunable circuits, mixers and current/voltage controlled oscillators, facilitated by cross modulation between multiple gates, high cutoff frequency, high intrinsic gain and near ideal g_m/I_d ratios [3].