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by Prof. Thomas Zimmer

University Bordeaux 1, France
Copyright, last modified: July 2004

Contents

1. Aim of the lab exercise

2. Key words

3. Prelab

4. Experiments

4.1. Extraction of the threshold voltage VTO

4.2. Extraction of in non saturation

4.3. Determination of the body effect parameter g

4.4. Determination of the channel length modulation parameter l

5. Measurement and Extraction

6. Discussion

1. Aim of the lab exercise

The following analog electronics lab exercise was designed for electrical engineering curriculums.
The objective is to familiarize students with basic MOS DC transistor characteristics and to extract from
these characteristics fundamental technological and device data such as electron surface mobility, threshold
voltage, body effect parameter, and output conductance.

2. Key words
Ø The MOS transistor
Ø CMOS Technology
Ø Device modelling

3. Prelab
Before starting the lab exercise, complete the following prelab analysis:
a) Draw the physical structure of an NMOS and PMOS transistor in a p-well, CMOS technology: top
side view and cross section view.

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b) Plot the electrical characteristics of a NMOS transistor:

ID (VDS) for different VGS values, VBS = 0.
ID (VGS) in saturation mode.
ID (VGS) in linear operation for different VBS values.
c) Indicate how the potential of the substrate influences the electrical characteristics and to which
nodes the substrates (p-well, n-well) of the NMOS and PMOS transistor have to be connected, respectively.
d) Give the definition of weak inversion and strong inversion.
e) Give the physical signification and the associated unit of each parameter in the following

expression:
f) Show how the expression for the transconductance gm can be derived from IDsat?
Give the expression of gm as a function of IDsat (in saturation).
g) Indicate how the expression for the conductance gds can be derived from IDsat ?
Give the expression of gds as a function of IDsat (in saturation).
h) Show how the expression for the transconductance gmbs can be derived from IDsat?
Give the expression of gmbs as a function of IDsat (in saturation) .
Reminder: The threshold voltage VT depends on the Bulk-Source voltage VBS:

VT = ,
where VTO corresponds to the threshold voltage when VBS = 0V, g is the body effect parameter and FF is
the surface potential at strong inversion.

4. Experiments
After completing the prelab work, and, before performing the DC measurements, some MOS transistor
parameter extraction techniques are presented below:

The equations describing the DC characteristics of the MOS device are in a first approximation, neglecting
short and narrow channel effects:

saturation (1)

non saturation (2)

with (3)

The first order parameters are:

4.1. Extraction of the threshold voltage VTO

In a first approximation, the channel length modulation parameter l can be neglected. Under this
assumption and with the bias condition VSB = 0 (VT = VTO), equation (1) can be rewritten:

(4)

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This is a parabolic function. It is plotted on Figure 1.

Figure 1: Drain current iD as a function of VGS, in saturation, VDS = 5V

Choosing two points, and on this graph, the parameters and can be
determined. Additionally, when the two points fulfil the condition that , it can be shown that

. Then .

4.2. Extraction of in non saturation

Under the assumption of a small drain-source voltage (VDS = 100 mV), the channel length modulation
parameter l can be neglected. Equation (2) can be rewritten:

Plotting iD as function of VGS, and calculating the slope m gives: . The slope m can be
estimated by choosing two points from the curve (Figure 2) and then the parameter can be deduced.
From the value, the low electric field mobility µ0 can be calculated: ; COX has been
determined in the first part.

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Figure 2: Drain current iD as a function of VGS, in non saturation

4.3. Determination of the body effect parameter g

The influence of the bulk voltage on the threshold voltage is described by the body effect parameter g, see
equation (3). For each bias VBS, the threshold voltage is different. In a first step, we will extract the threshold
voltage for different bulk-source voltages VBS. As discussed in the previous section, equation (4) represents a
parabolic function. It has been shown that the extraction of the threshold voltage can be done in
straightforward manner by choosing two points, and , on the characteristics .
Furthermore, when the two points fulfil the condition that , it follows that .
The drain current as a function of is represented in Figure 3 for different bulk-source voltages
(VBS=-1V, VBS=-2V, VBS=-3V, VBS=-4V).
For each curve, the procedure described above can be applied and the threshold voltage extracted.

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Figure 3: Drain current iD as a function of VGS, in saturation, for different VBS, VDS = 5V

In a second step, the body effect parameter g is determined. Equation 3 can be rewritten in the following
way: , which is the equation of a straight line. The identification of the parameters gives: ,

, and .
The parameter can be calculated using the following expression and the already extracted parameter

NSUB: .
Plotting and calculating the slope gives directly the body effect parameter g (cf. Figure 4). The
slope can be calculated by direct extraction, that is by choosing two points from the curve.

To follow the described procedure, the first fill in the following table:
VBS (V) 0 -1 -2 -3 -4
(V) (use Figure 1 and Figure
3)

( )

Typical results are presented in Figure 4, in which the procedure has been applied to the results (Figure 1
and Figure 3) presented in this section.

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Figure 4: Plotting VT as a function of to extract the parameter g

4.4. Determination of the channel length modulation parameter l

The channel length modulation parameter l describes the increase of the drain current in saturation with
increasing VDS and for constant VGS and VBS. This effect is also sometimes called the Early effect for MOS
transistors, even when the physical origin for the Early effect in bipolar transistors is completely different.
To determine the parameter l, equation (1) can be rewritten as:

.
Plotting iD as a function of VDS and calculating the slope and the y-intercept from the data in
the saturation region, l can be determined by dividing the slope by the y-intercept value.
Figure 5 illustrates this procedure.

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Figure 5: Plot of iD versus VDS to extract l

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5. Measurement and Extraction

The drain current as a function of the gate-source voltage in saturation (point 4.1), in linear operation
(point 4.2) and with different substrate-source voltages (point 4.3) can be measured by following the link below:

nmos_transfer.html

The drain current as a function of the drain-source voltage with the gate-source voltage as a parameter
(point 4.4) can be measured by following the link below:

nmos_output.html

Perform the measurements to extract the parameters

6. Discussion
The transistors measured in this lab experiment have been realised within an “old” technology. What are
the characteristics of state-of-the-art technology in terms of:
Ø Gate width.
Ø Threshold voltage.
Ø Oxide thickness.
Ø What are the advantages to use such a technology?
Ø What are the drawbacks?

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NMOS: Transfer characteristic

Measured characteristic: ID (VGS, VBS, VDS = const)
Figure of merits: threshhold voltage, transconductance
Perform a
Typical stimuli: 0<VGS<2.5V, 0>VBS>-2.5V, VDS=2V measurement

Maximal settings: 0<VGS<3V, 0>VBS>-3V, VDS=3V

schematic:

typical result:

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NMOS: Output characteristic

Measured characteristic: ID(VDS,VGS =const)
Figure of merits: output impedance, linear region, channel
length modulation Perform a
measurement
Typical stimuli: VB=0V, 0<VDS<2.5V, 1<VGS<2.5V
Maximal settings: VB=0V, 0<VDS<3V, 0<VGS<3V

schematic:

typical result:

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