MOSFET behavior and circuit considerations for analog applications at 77 K

We present an investigation into the behavior of silicon MOS transistors and analog circuits operated at liquid-nitrogen temperature (LNT). Simple scaling rules are used to predict the LNT performance of CMOS operational amplifier circuits designed for room-temperature operation. Measurements show that unity gain frequency and slew rate can be improved by the same amount as the mobility increase with no loss of stability if bias currents are properly controlled. We also show that room-temperature CMOS amplifier circuits can be redesigned for 77-K operation by reducing channel widths and compensation capacitor area, giving performance equal in most respects to that of unscaled circuits at room temperature. However, 1/f noise is degraded by such redesign. Similar considerations of NMOS amplifiers show that such circuits do not benefit greatly from operation at liquid-nitrogen temperature. To aid in studying the temperature dependence of the sheet resistance of diffused resistors, a computer program was developed based on available models for bulk mobility and carrier freeze-out. Accurate predictions require a temperature dependence for lattice scattering that differs from previously reported values.