SiGe HMOSFET monolithic inverting current mirror

The authors present the first to their knowledge monolithic inverting current mirror fabricated on heterostructure Si/SiGe technology, using buried silicon channel depletion-mode MOSFET transistors. Characterisation results both at DC and at high frequencies prove that the technology is viable, with the circuit exhibiting remarkably high linearity while combining functionality usually achieved in III-V systems with the robustness and flexibility of a MOS platform. This emerging technology qualifies as an ideal candidate for the building of elemental analogue blocks, where tuning and exploitation of device properties will eliminate the need of further linearisation circuitry, which increases noise, complexity and power consumption. Furthermore, these circuits can also benefit from the high frequency bandwidth associated with strained silicon channels.