Circuit employing MOSFETs and corresponding method
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics Design and Application S.R.O.
InventorSandor Petenyi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A MOSFET has a current conduction path between source and drain terminals. A gate terminal of the MOSFET receives an input signal to facilitate current conduction in the current conduction path as a result of a gate-to-source voltage reaching a threshold voltage. A body terminal of the MOSFET is coupled to body voltage control circuitry that is sensitive to the voltage at the gate terminal of the MOSFET. The body voltage control circuitry responds to a reduction in the voltage at the gate terminal of the MOSFET by increasing the body voltage of the MOSFET at the body terminal of the MOSFET. As a result, there is reduction in the threshold voltage. The circuit configuration is applicable to amplifier circuits, comparator circuits and current mirror circuits.
Claims12
A circuit, comprising:
- a first MOSFET having a current conduction path between a first source terminal and a first drain terminal, a first gate terminal configured to receive a first input signal and a first body terminal;
- a second MOSFET having a current conduction path between a second source terminal and a second drain terminal, a second gate terminal configured to receive a second input signal and a second body terminal;
- wherein said first and second MOSFETs are coupled with each other in a differential MOSFET pair and the first and second input signals are a differential input signal;
- body voltage control circuitry, comprising:
- a first body voltage control MOSFET having a gate terminal coupled to the first gate terminal of said first MOSFET and configured to receive the first input signal of the differential input signal, and a first source-drain current path;
- a second body voltage control MOSFET having a gate terminal coupled to the second gate terminal of said second MOSFET and configured to receive the second input signal of the differential input signal and a second source-drain current path;
- wherein the first and second source-drain current paths are coupled in series with each other between the first body terminal of the first MOSFET and a reference node.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.