Low-power circuit advantages of the scaled accumulation FET

The trend toward higher clock frequencies has resulted in FETs being compared for their performance at the highest frequencies. Traditionally, the buried channel(BC) FET is considered to have more short channel effects than the normal surface channel inversion(SCI) FET and thus the BC FET is used only when absolutely needed. The same, more severe short channel effects behavior has been assumed for moderate to high-V_T FETs, which find use in ultra low-power applications. However, a careful investigation both at the transistor and circuit level, reveals that the BC FET is better than the SCI FET for moderate speed, ultra low-power applications.