Hysteresis effect in floating-body partially depleted SOI CMOS domino circuits

Abstract

This paper investigates in detail the basic mechanisms of hysteretic delay and noise margin variations for floating-body partially depleted SOI CMOS domino circuits. We first consider the 'clock cycling scenario', which completely eliminates (or isolates) the hysteresis effect of the output inverter, thus allowing one to observe and understand the hysteresis effect of the front-end domino logic stage. Three cases, based on whether the input signals are domino input signals, from other domino circuits, static input signals, from static circuits or latches; or a combination of domino and static input signals, are examined and differentiated. It is shown that hysteretic delay variation is the largest and the noise margin worst for the case with mixed domino and static input signals. Although the delay and noise margin disparities among the three types of input signals are significant at the beginning of the clock cycles, they converge as the circuit approaches steady state. The 'data cycling scenario' with the combined hysteresis effect of both the front-end domino logic stage and the output inverter is then discussed. Circuits operating under the 'data cycling scenario' are shown to have less body charge loss through the switching cycles than under the 'clock cycling scenario'.