Lesson plan
Subthreshold conduction
Subthreshold conduction or subthreshold leakage or subthreshold drain current is the current between the source and drain of a MOSFET when the transistor is in subthreshold region, or weak-inversion region, that is, for gate-to-source voltages below the threshold voltage. The amount of subthreshold conduction in a transistor is set by its threshold voltage, which is the minimum gate voltage required to switch the device between on and off states. However, as the drain current in a MOS device varies exponentially with gate voltage, the conduction does not immediately become zero when the threshold voltage is reached. Rather it continues showing an exponential behavior with respect to the subthreshold gate voltage. When plotted against the applied gate voltage, this subthreshold drain current exhibits a log-linear slope, which is defined as the subthreshold slope. Subthreshold slope is used as a figure of merit for the switching efficiency of a transistor. In digital circuits, subthreshold conduction is generally viewed as a parasitic leakage in a state that would ideally have no conduction. In micropower analog circuits, on the other hand, weak inversion is an efficient operating region, and subthreshold is a useful transistor mode around which circuit functions are designed.…
Article summary
Subthreshold conduction or subthreshold leakage or subthreshold drain current is the current between the source and drain of a MOSFET when the transistor is in subthreshold region, or weak-inversion region, that is, for gate-to-source voltages below the threshold voltage. The amount of subthreshold conduction in a transistor is set by its threshold voltage, which is the minimum gate voltage required to switch the device between on and off states. However, as the drain current in a MOS device varies exponentially with gate voltage, the conduction does not immediately become zero when the threshold voltage is reached. Rather it continues showing an exponential behavior with respect to the subthreshold gate voltage. When plotted against the applied gate voltage, this subthreshold drain current exhibits a log-linear slope, which is defined as the subthreshold slope. Subthreshold slope is used as a figure of merit for the switching efficiency of a transistor. In digital circuits, subthreshold conduction is generally viewed as a parasitic leakage in a state that would ideally have no conduction. In micropower analog circuits, on the other hand, weak inversion is an efficient operating region, and subthreshold is a useful transistor mode around which circuit functions are designed.…
Key claims
No claims recorded.
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
No sources recorded.
Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.