Gated-Diode Amplifiers

This brief describes MOS amplifiers comprising a gated diode and a field-effect transistor. A gated diode is a two-terminal MOS device in which charge is stored when a voltage above the threshold voltage is applied between the gate and the source, and negligible charge is stored otherwise. The operation makes use of the nonlinear capacitance of the gated diode for voltage boosting, where voltage for 1-data is boosted high and voltage for 0-data stays low, achieving significant voltage gain, signal margin, and current drive. Further, a number of small-signal single-ended sense amplifier circuits are presented. The gated-diode sense amplifiers deliver high gain, require low power and low device count, and are tolerant to voltage and process variation. © 2005, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved.