This paper demonstrates the design process and performance prediction of a cryogenic 22 nm FDSOI circuit using a design-oriented model. The simplified EKV model is adopted to capture IV characteristics of short-channel transistors, for which parameters are extracted from cryogenic measurement of commercial FDSOI MOSFETs. When applied to a complete circuit, the model accurately predicts performances at various back-gate voltages and temperatures, achieving less than 1 % average absolute error. This validates the presented analytical approach, even under the stringent requirements of low-temperature operation, paving the way to exploiting rather than enduring cryogenic temperature effects on CMOS designs.

There is today a lack of mature transistor-level compact models for the simulation of integrated circuits at cryogenic temperatures. This is particularly the case for the simulation of the noise behavior which is critical for most applications. In this paper, we aim at an efficient prediction of the white noise behavior of basic amplifying stages working at RF frequencies and cryogenic temperatures. For this, we propose the use of DC measurements that are incorporated in a Look-Up Table (LUT) and fed to a mathematical noise model. We illustrate the approach for the case of a transistor in common source configuration. The results of circuit simulation of the noise parameters in the standard temperature range are very close to the estimation of the same parameters using the LUT with just DC measurements. The approach can be readily extended to the analysis of circuits with multiple components. Next, the LUT approach is used for estimating the noise parameters at cryogenic conditions, considering DC measurements that have been carried out at these temperatures. The paper illustrates the feasibility of carrying out a cryogenic design using a LUT-based approach while accurate compact models are not yet available.