Direct Mismatch Characterization of femto-Farad Capacitors

Hesham Omran, Rami T. Elafandy, Muhammad Arsalan, Khaled N. Salama

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Reducing the capacitance of programmable capacitor arrays, commonly used in analog integrated circuits, is necessary for low-energy applications. However, limited mismatch data is available for small capacitors. We report mismatch measurement for a 2fF poly-insulator-poly (PIP) capacitor, which is the smallest reported PIP capacitor to the best of the authors’ knowledge. Instead of using complicated custom onchip circuitry, direct mismatch measurement is demonstrated and verified using Monte Carlo Simulations and experimental measurements. Capacitive test structures composed of 9-bit programmable capacitor arrays (PCAs) are implemented in a low-cost 0:35m CMOS process. Measured data is compared to mismatch of large PIP capacitors, theoretical models, and recently published data. Measurement results indicate an estimated average relative standard deviation of 0.43% for the 2fF unit capacitor, which is better than the reported mismatch of metal-oxide-metal (MOM) fringing capacitors implemented in an advanced 32nm CMOS process.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)151-155
Number of pages5
JournalIEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs
Volume63
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 17 2015

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