Performance verification of folded-cascode amplifiers built from nanowire transistors

For the first time, this paper investigates the plausibility of building analog amplifiers from nanowire (NW) transistors and verifies their performances. First, since the models for nanowire transistors have not been developed yet, drain current formulae are fitted into conventional and 1.8 Power Law models for single transistors. Second, open-loop gain of one folded-cascode amplifier is obtained from the measured closed-loop gain with power supply of 1.5V and DC bias current of 1µA and open-loop gain is also calculated using the developed formulae, which verifies the measurement result. Third, the lowest supply voltage of 0.75V is obtained for another two-stage folded-cascode amplifier. Although more work still needs to be done in this area, the results show a promising future in analog applications of NW transistors.