State of the art and perspectives in RF and mm-wave microelectronics

In nanometer CMOS technologies, several effects emerge due to short channel-lengths. Some of the most important ones are velocity saturation and gate leakage currents. As a result different transistor models are required to allow accurate prediction of analog circuit performance. The transconductance and speed are both limited by velocity saturation. Also noise and mismatch suffer from smaller channel lengths, as a result of the thinner gate oxides used. Moreover the supply voltage has been reduced to values around 1 Volt, creating new challenges for analog circuit design.