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Lab 1 MOSFET Characteristics

LAB 1: MOSFET Characteristics

Objectives:
1. To study the semiconductor device characteristic of a MOSFET.
2. To define the behavior of the MOSFET in terms of its terminal voltages and currents.
3. To carry out the parametric analysis for MOSFET.

Procedure:
1. Double clicks at icon VMware Workstation, clicks Power on This Virtual Machine. Next, type in the
Username and password and press enter.
2. Red Hat Linux 4 will appear. Then right click and chose Open Terminal. In the terminal, type cd
silterraC13_Apr2011 command and press enter. Next, type virtuoso command and press enter.
3. After Virtuoso window appear, click Tools > Library Manager. The Library Manager:WorkArea will
appear.
4. To create your working directory in Library Manager, click File > New > Library, then insert your
library name for example Lab in the new pop up New Library window. Then click OK.
5. Then Technology File for New Library will pop up. Choose Attach to an existing techfile button and
click OK.
6. Select silterraC13 and click OK at Attach Design Library to Technology File window.
7. In the Library Manager:WorkArea window, the new library Lab has been created.
8. To create the schematic workspace, highlight your library name Lab , then go to File > New > Cell
View. Then insert your Cell Name Lab1 in the new Create New File window and click OK.
9. The Virtuoso Schematic Editor will apprear for you to create your schematic.
10. Construst the schematic given in Figure 1.

VGS

W
L

20 m
130 nm
M1

VDC = VDS

Figure 1 : Schematic of NMOS transistor

11. To choose the component, click Add > Instance. Then, click the Browse button to find the component
that you want as shown in Figure 2. To change the parameters of the instance, select the instance (by
clicking on it with the mouse) and then use properties icon or press q.

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Figure 2 : Instantiation of the single stage transistor

12. Complete plugging in the parameter of the circuit as given in Figure 1. Click at Check and Save button
to check and to automatically save your design. Make sure you look at the CIW window and there are
no errors or warnings, if there are any, you have to go back and fix them.
13. Click Launch > ADE L to simulate the circuit. In the Analog Design Environment window, click Setup >
Simulator/Directory/Host, choose spectre and click OK as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 : Selected Simulator (Spectre)

14. In the Virtuoso Analog Design Environment window, click Setup > Model Libraries, delete all the
model files and choose the correct Model File and Section as shown in Figure 4.

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Lab 1 MOSFET Characteristics

/home/eda/silterraC13_smartPDK_4_1_21Apr2011/models/SPECTRE/bsim4c13_hprf_rev1_2.scs

Figure 4 : Selected model library

15. Then click OK. Your Analog Design Environment window will appear for you to select the input
Variables. Click Variable > Edit then the Editing Design variables window will appear. Insert the input
variables in the Name column and its value in the Value (Expr) column, and then click OK, as shown
Figure 5.

Figure 5 : Analog design environment

16. For the output, click Outputs > To Be Plotted > Select On Schematic. Here you need to choose the
output from the schematic (in this case, select the negative terminal of VDS supply). Press Esc after
selecting the output. Be sure at the Outputs > Save All > click all button to save all your simulation
output results.

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17. Then choose the analysis type by click Analyses > Choose > dc and click on Save DC Operating
Point. Then click at Design Variable box, insert the Variable Name and Sweep Range as shown in
Figure 6 and click OK.

Figure 6 : Simulation of single stage

18. Finally, to run simulation, click Simulation > Netlist & Run. The graph that shows I/V characteristics
for NMOS will appear. Your graphs should be similar as in Figure 7 and Figure 8. It shows graph for
IDS vs VGS (when VDS = 1.2 V) and IDS vs VDS (when VGS = 600 mV).

Figure 7 : IDS vs VGS when VDS = 1.2 V

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Figure 8 : IDS vs VDS graph when VGS = 600 mV

(Note: If there is any change of schematic, click at Check and Save button. Recreate netlist needs to
be done in the Analog Design Environment, click Simulation > Netlist > recreate first then Simulation
> Netlist & Run)
19. To determine various values of VGS , click Tools > Parametric Analysis. Then Parametric Analysis will
pop up. Then click Setup > Pick Name for Variable > Sweep 1. Choose the variable VGS form the
Parametric Analysis Pick Sweep 1, and then click OK.
20. Then insert the Range type and Step Control as show in Figure 9. Then click Analysis > Start to
obtained the results as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9 : Parametric analysis of single stage amplifier

21. The graph obtained after simulation should be as shown in Figure 10. Record the reading in Table 1.

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(a)

(b)
Figure 10 : NMOS characteristics, (a) IDS vs VDS and (b) IDS vs VGS

VGS ( V )

Table 1: Result of IDS vs VDS

0.5
0.6

0.7

IDS (A )
VDS ( V )

0.9

0.9

0.9

(Note: In the Analog Design Environment, save the dc analysis process that was evaluated by clicking
Session > Save State > dc_NMOS_analysis.)
22. What is the value of VDS when IDS = 150 A and VGS = 0.6 V?
23. Applying the same steps to obtain the IDS vs VDS , we can obtain the IDS vs VGS graph as shown in
Figure 10(b). The graph shows that the smaller the VSB is the higher IDS will flow through the NMOS.

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24. To plot the gm graphs ( gm vs VGS - VTN ), in Analog Design Environment, click Tools > Result
Browser. Result Browser window will pop up, click dcOpInfo-info > NM0 > main choose gm and
use right hand button to select Calculator. Calculator window will pop up containing the gm info that
was selected in Result Browser.
25. Go back to the Analog Design Environment, double click at the VDD/MINUS in the Outputs area to
pop up the Setting Output window. Click on New Expression button, follow by Get Expression
button. In the Expression column there is the detail about the gm that was selected before. Type in
any name in Name (opt.) column such as gm . Click OK.
26. Go back to the Result Browser window, select vgs then use right hand button to select Calculator.
Without do other things, repeat the same procedure to select vth following by clicking minus (-) button
in the Calculator. Now, in the calculator display both vgs and vth information will be appeared.
Repeat the same step as in procedure 25 and type in any name in Name (opt.) column such as vgsvth. Click OK.
27. Simulate the data that was in the Analog Design Environment. Ensure to sweep your VGS from 0 to
1 in Parametric Analysis and produce the graph as shown in Figure 11. (To change the axis, double
click on the axis and the Axis Attributes window will pop up for editing). Explain the graph.

Figure 11 : gm vs VGS - VTN graph when W/L constant

28. Using the same procedure, plot gm vs IDS (when W/L constant) and gm vs VGS - VTN (when IDS
constant by adding a 2 mA Current Source to the Drain of schematic). Your graph will be as shown in
Figure 12 and Figure 13.

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Figure 12 : gm vs IDS when W/L constant

Figure 13 : gm vs VGS - VTN when IDS constant

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