Hysteretic inverter-on-a-body-tied-wire based on less-than-10mV/decade abrupt punch-through impact ionization MOS (PIMOS) switch

This work reports for the first time on a cascadable NMOS inverter based on punch-through impact ionization MOSFET (PIMOS) integrated on a single body-tied silicon wire. The PIMOS device acts as a single-transistor-latch and shows abrupt current switching (3-10 mV/dec.) as well as hysteresis in both I_D(V_DS) and I_D(V_GS). An inverter gain as high as -80 and a 300 mV hysteresis width in the transfer characteristics are reported at room temperature. Temperature stability of the devices up to 125degC and operation for more than 10⁴ cycles without significant degradation are demonstrated, much beyond the performances of previously reported I-MOS device.