Design and Modeling of Room-Temperature Analog-to-Digital Converters based on Nano-scale Semiconductor Quantum-dot Single Electron Transistors

In this article, the design and modeling details of room-temperature analog-to-digital converter (ADC) based on silicon quantum-dot (QD) single-electron transistors (SETs) is presented. In contrast to the conventional metal quantum dots, the use of silicon QDs in the scales of few nano-meters enhances the device operation and makes stable the Coulomb blockade and Coulomb oscillation regimes at room temperature. Nano-scale silicon QD-based SETs are also compatible with CMOS fabrication steps and can be integrated along with CMOS circuits on a same substrate. The proposed ADC in this article benefits from stable Coulomb oscillations of silicon QD-based SETs at room temperature. A 3-bit 5-GS/s prototype of this ADC contains three complementary SET pairs and four capacitors in the form of capacitor divider. Simulation results based on Monte-Carlo SIMON simulator demonstrates reliable static and dynamic performance at room temperature.