Introduction Of Advanced Cmos Device Models Into The Curriculum At The Introductory Electronics Level

Most contemporary electronics design is accomplished in the CMOS technology and makes use of a design cycle that employs advanced MOS device models. These models accommodate many technologies, high-field effects, and second-order approximations and thereby must be deployed with a large parameter set. The models have a fairly high mathematics overhead. Consequently they are nearly impenetrable to the average student, even those with a relatively high level of expertise. In this respect it is almost unnecessary to do more with the models than the first-order treatments espoused by textbook reference and instead treat the subject of CMOS design in terms of a simulation methodology. This paper identifies a set of simulation techniques and exercises that efficiently deploy this perspective. With the introductory electronics courses a set of simulation exercises have been developed which include the BSIM3V4 model, and identify effects in terms of the model simulation parameters, most of which can be associated with first-order physical roots. The process is simple and direct. In the classroom setting the effect of simulation at different CMOS levels is also appropriate and is deployed by these exercises, usually by collateral use of a spreadsheet utility and its graph/plot capabilities. The student version of Cadence/ORCAD/pSPICE, the most common classroom circuit simulation platform, is the principal operational utility, with the MS/Excel platform as a complementary spreadsheet utility.