APPLICATION OF THE BACK GATE IN MOS WEAK INVERSION TRANSLINEAR CIRCUITS

Though the MOS transistor is a four-terminal device, it is most often used as a three-terminal device. Therefore, a large number of possible MOS circuits are overlooked. In this brief, the four-terminal point o f view is elaborated with respect to MOS weak inversion translinear ci rcuits, a class of circuits naturally very suitable for low-voltage an d low-power applications. Some new circuits are described which someti mes are more suitable for low-voltage applications than bipolar transl inear networks performing the same function. It is also shown that, us ing the back gate, translinear networks can be derived which cannot be realized with bipolar transistors. These network topologies increase the possibilities offered bg translinear technology. As an example, me asurement results of a low input-voltage current mirror and a sin(x)ci rcuit are shown.