5. Low Voltage, Low Power Simulations

Traditionlly, circuit design and technology development are independent from each other. The circuit designer must use in the best way possible the available devices that are supposedly ``optimized''. We can say that there are two distinct optimization phases (see Figure 5.1):

• Tuning of technology parameters,
• Architecture/circuit optimization using device compact models.
  

Figure 5.1: Traditional technology/circuit optimization.

At a reduced power supply the circuit design becomes largely dependent on technology issues and therefore the second optimization can be falsed due to large errors introduced by the compact models used for circuit simulation. Also, it would be advantageous to perform the technology optimization having the circuit specifications in mind, once they are the overall final target.

Using TCAD tools and a table-based circuit simulator, we will describe an efficient simulation environment for design and optimization of low-voltage, low-power circuits.