Essentials of SOI technology for small power supply applications

The relationship between that of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology and ordinary CMOS is presented followed with an examination of the basic features of MOSFETs fabricated under the SOI process. Such features include the intrinsic junction diodes, diffusion capacitance, floating-body effect, internal parasitic bipolar effects, the insulation layer and its consequences, and the self-heating effect. In addition to the fact that many of these features provide improvements in transistor design and performance over standard CMOS, SOI technology is poised to become competitive for small power supply applications.