The Future of Ultra-Low Power SOTB CMOS Technology and Applications

Ultra-low power technology has drawn much attention recently as the number of connecting (Internet-of-Things) devices rapidly increases. The silicon-on-thin-buried oxide (SOTB) technology is a CMOS device technology that uses fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) transistors with a thin buried oxide layer enabling enhanced back-bias controllability and that can be monolithically integrated with the conventional bulk CMOS circuits. It can significantly reduce both the operation and the standby powers by taking advantage of low-voltage operation and back-biasing, respectively. In this chapter, advantages of the SOTB technology in terms of ultra-low power, circuits design and chip implementation examples including ultra-low power micro-controllers operating with harvested power, reconfigurable logic circuits, analog circuits, are reviewed, and a future perspective is shown.