Circuit devices and methods having adjustable transistor body bias

摘要

Circuits, integrated circuits devices, and methods are disclosed that may include biasable transistors with screening regions positioned below a gate and separated from the gate by a semiconductor layer. Bias voltages can be applied to such screening regions to optimize multiple performance features, such as speed and current leakage. Particular embodiments can include biased sections coupled between a high power supply voltage and a low power supply voltage, each having biasable transistors. One or more generation circuits can generate multiple bias voltages. A bias control section can couple one of the different bias voltages to screening regions of biasable transistors to provide a minimum speed and lowest current leakage for such a minimum speed.

主权项

1. An integrated circuit (IC) device, comprising:
at least a first biased section comprising a plurality of biasable NMOS transistors and a plurality of biasable PMOS transistors; at least one bias generation circuit configured to generate a plurality of bias voltages; a plurality of performance values, each performance value being associated with an NMOS bias voltage and a PMOS bias voltage of the plurality of bias voltages, each performance value corresponding to a speed of the first biased section when the associated NMOS bias voltage is coupled to the biasable NMOS transistors and the associated PMOS bias voltage is coupled to the biasable PMOS transistors; a plurality of leakage reduction coefficients, each leakage reduction coefficient being associated with an NMOS bias voltage and a PMOS bias voltage of the plurality of bias voltages, each leakage reduction coefficient corresponding to a leakage current reduction of the first biased section when the associated NMOS bias voltage is coupled to the biasable NMOS transistors and the associated PMOS bias voltage is coupled to the biasable PMOS transistors; and at least one bias control section responsive to the plurality of performance values and the plurality of leakage reduction coefficients and adapted to selectively couple an NMOS bias voltage to the NMOS biasable transistors and a PMOS bias voltage to the PMOS biasable transistors, such that the selectively coupled NMOS and PMOS bias voltages provide a first biased section having a predetermined minimum speed and a lowest leakage current corresponding the predetermined minimum speed; wherein the at least one bias control section determines a plurality of candidate performance values that correspond to the first biased section having the predetermined minimum speed, the bias control section further evaluating the candidate performance values and selecting an optimal performance value having an associated leakage reduction coefficient within predetermined limits, the bias control section selectively coupling the NMOS and PMOS bias voltages associated with the optimal performance value to the first biased section.